German GP: Questioning Ferrari's strategy a mistake, Vettel admits

Vettel insisted on staying out before his final stop despite Ferrari urging him to pit.

He argued his tyres were still in good shape and that the team's desire to get an undercut on Max Verstappen was misplaced as all the cars ahead were "miles away" at the time.

In retrospect Vettel said he realised an earlier stop would have been worth the gamble as Ferrari's pace was better on fresh tyres.

"I've looked at that now and I think I made a mistake because we could have had a chance at putting the cars in front under some more pressure," he said.

"But we were talking about it for a long time. I don't know how much got broadcast.

"We were obviously not so great at the end of the stints, struggling a bit with the tyres, and obviously I didn't want to make the last stint too long for that reason, so I think it was too conservative."

Vettel was nine seconds behind Verstappen at the time of the strategy debate, and ultimately pitted within the same window as the rest of the lead pack.

The German and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen fell away from the Mercedes and Red Bulls throughout the race and finished in distant fifth and sixth places.

"Like yesterday we struggled a little bit to get the balance right and the car was arguably sliding a little bit too much, which cost us a bit of life on the tyres and performance at the end of the stint," Vettel said.

"To sum it up, we just were not quick enough today."

Raikkonen, who outqualified Vettel but was then beaten off the line, said there was nothing Ferrari could have done differently on strategy to make up for a lack of pace and high tyre wear.

"We kind of ran out a bit of the fronts or the rears depending on what we did at the pitstops," he said.

"Purely we need more downforce to go faster, plus it's going to make a big difference for tyre life.

"We were just lacking overall speed. There are moments where we can be very fast in the race but it doesn't last long enough and we need to fix those things."