When Sebastian Vettel joined Ferrari in 2015 his one ambition was to go some of the way to emulating his great hero, Michael Schumacher.

In the same way that Schumacher had brought glory back to the Maranello outfit, so too Vettel hoped to reign supreme with the Scuderia.

Though there were wins, and on two occasions he finished runner-up in the championship, there were no titles.

And while he leaves the Italian marque as its third most successful driver, certainly in terms of (F1) race wins, Vettel insists that ultimately it was a failure.

While his 14 wins, put him ahead of Alberto Ascari (13), Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa (both on 11), he is one off the 15 scored by Niki Lauda, and a whopping 58 short of the record set by his great hero.

"It still doesn't change anything, we still failed," he told reporters, when asked if he derived any satisfaction from being the marques third most successful driver.

"We had the ambition and target to win the championship, and we didn't," he added. "It's just an honest reflection, I don't think saying it out loud changes anything.

"We were up against a very strong team-driver combination, but our goal was to be stronger than that and in that regard we failed.

"There are reasons for it, we had good races, bad races, sometimes we were close, sometimes we were far away.

"There's a lot of reasons why, but in the big picture, I don't think it's unfair, it's just the truth, nothing wrong with saying it out loud."

Many cite his mistake at the 2018 German Grand Prix, when he inexplicably crashed out whilst leading his home race, as when it began to go wrong.

"No, I think it was pretty much a roller-coaster ride over the years with a lot of things happening," he insists. "In terms of momentum in that year, it wasn't helping.

"The mistake was a little mistake, with a huge outcome, a huge penalty. There were definitely more things happening.

"In the '18 season, we had the passing of Mr. Marchionne, the changing of leadership from Maurizio to Mattia, so maybe the '18 season was decisive for many things, but I don't know if you can really break it down to only one thing.

"In 2016 we parted ways with James (Allison) because of personal conflicts at the time," he added. "Looking back, there were a lot of things that we should have and could have done better.

"Everything happened for a reason, so the main thing from my side was to make sure I learned from it. I think I have grown from it.

"Some were moments on the track, in Hockenheim, other moments were off the track. Overall I feel much more comfortable or in a better place now than those years ago, but certainly at the time it hasn't always been easy and straightforward."

Check out our Thursday gallery from Yas Island, here.