JOIN USFerrari's Fernando Alonso said 'today was the day to congratulate Sebastian Vettel' for his historic title win but promised to make life tough for his German rival in the next season.
Alonso was the only man who could have taken the championship fight to Abu Dhabi but the Spaniard failed to win a single point by finishing 11th.
"Congratulations Sebastian. Obviously very, very strong season, dominating specially the second part of the year with many many wins. Well done to him and to the team. Hopefully, next year we can make things more difficult than this year," said Alonso.
"This is a sport, someone is better than us. This year it was Sebastian and Red Bull. Next year, we will try to do better and keep fighting until the end. This year we were fighting until three races to the end," the two-time world champion said.
Asked if he was given the same car and facility, can he beat Vettel, the Spaniard chose not to give a hypothetical answer.
"I'm not here to guess. I don't have the crystal balls to show. We all feel confident that we can do a good job. This is impossible to say. Today is the day to congratulate him and for him to enjoy the championship and it's the day for us to start working even harder because we have a strong challenge in front of us.
"They have been very strong, dominating for the last four years. We need to do something better than what we did in the last four years because it's clear that it's not enough. So we will start immediately. Next year, we want to win so we have to work," he said.