Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari has dropped behind Red Bull to the third-fastest team on the Formula 1 grid.

The two teams have enjoyed some brilliant battles this season, but, thanks to two wins, Max Verstappen has been able to pull out a healthy lead over Vettel and Charles Leclerc to currently sit third in the Drivers' standings.

Only the poor results of the Dutchman's now-former teammate Pierre Gasly sees Ferrari ahead in the Constructors' standings, but in the development race, the four-time champion admits the Scuderia is way behind.

“It is possible to close the gap as Red Bull has shown as they have been behind Mercedes at the start of the season, and probably behind us, and I think currently they are ahead of us and closer to Mercedes than we are,” Vettel said on Thursday via Crash.net.

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The main reason for Ferrari's lack of progress has been trying to evolve their 2019 car which is substantially down on downforce compared to Mercedes and Red Bull.

As a result, the team has been evaluating upgrades for many races now as they try to find the right development path, but Vettel does think once found, the benefits could be immediate.

"We need to try to find more performance and squeeze more performance out of the car, better ideas and more solutions to make the car faster," he accepted.

“That is where we are and it hurts if you lose like that, losing by a minute in Hungary and we were going flat out as much as I think the front runners were but as I said it is not impossible to close the gap.

“Sometimes things start to click and fall in line with smaller things that can make a big difference. I don’t think there will be a silver bullet that will give us one second per lap but I am convinced and I know that if we find small things here and there sometimes it sets off a chain reaction. That is what we have to work towards.”

The next two races at least promise to be a little more fruitful for Ferrari as the long straights play to the engine advantage with the Italian team holds.

This weekend in Belgium, however, does mark a frustrating milestone for Vettel as it was a year since his last official win in F1, even if he disputes that.

“On paper, Spa and Monza seem to be better tracks for us, certainly in specific types of sectors,” GPFans report him as saying to Italian media.

“Did I win my last GP here? True, but in Bahrain, we went close and in Canada, we won, so it was not really a year of fasting.

“We must seize our chances when they show up, like here and in Monza, and then in Singapore, we have to give the best possible.”

Of course, Vettel did cross the line first in Montreal but dropped to second after a controversial penalty for unsafely re-entering the track.