Sebastian Vettel says the upheaval at Ferrari last year was crucial to securing the results the team has enjoyed at the start of 2017.

Ferrari endured a winless season in 2016 after high hopes of challenging for the title at the start of the year came to nothing. Midway through the season, Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne chaired a series of high-level crisis meetings that led to technical director James Allison leaving the team and being replaced by Mattia Binotto from Ferrari's engine department.

Binotto set about reorganising the technical departments at Maranello to promote more homegrown talent and create more freedom for ideas to flow within the team's technical hierarchy. Vettel believes the shakeup was necessary in order to move the team forward and said the changes really started to take effect over the winter.

"Obviously we did a massive stint over the winter [to build a competitive car]," Vettel said. " I think last year was a very good year for us. It wasn't good in terms of results, don't get me wrong, but I think for the team, getting together, a lot of things that had changed seemed to start clicking.

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"Obviously it helps when straight from the box, in testing, we had a good feeling. We looked reasonably competitive. [The win in] Australia obviously was a massive boost for all the team and you can see that when they are singing [the national anthem] down there [in front of the podium]. The whole factory has really come alive so that's great and we need to just make sure we keep it going and keep enjoying it.

"But for now, I think the team has obviously done a really, really great job, a lot of hard work, commitment and as I said, things start to click and hopefully that sort of success now in the first couple of races helps us to build up some sort of momentum."

Under Binotto's leadership, Enrico Cardile, who formally worked on Ferrari's GT project, was appointed to oversee the aerodynamics department alongside chief aerodynamicist David Sanchez, who was also promoted from within. But Binotto believes it was a change in culture that helped Ferrari make the most progress over the winter.

"We are many people in Ferrari. Each of us has his role which is an important role -- there is not one more important or less important in the team," the technical director said. "What we've done since July, I think... it's a great team with great engineers. It's simply making sure that everybody was delivering, being accountable, feeling accountable and getting the right team spirit."