For all those attacking Vettel and writing him off, while I agree he did stupid mistakes this season, he is still on par with Hamilton, at least the only one now who is just about equal. Vettel was as dominant with Red Bull as Hamilton is now with Mercedes, and you cant call Vettel reckless because of his mistakes, because few years back it was Vettel the "calculated" and smart driver, and Hamilton the reckless one. But when your'e driving a Ferrari which has been second to Mercedes up until this season ( and arguably only after the summer break), and when Ferrari is known for the past years now to clearly have the much inferior strategies in the race, then that puts Vettel under much pressure. These factors combined make it difficult for Vettel being many points behind to mount pressure on Hamilton and then overtake him. It also makes him race more dangerously to make up for being handicapped because of the aforementioned points. Mercedes has the utmost luxury of being one step ahead of Ferrari. Of course this changed now that Ferrari is improving the car, but it already made Mercedes gain many points over Ferrari this season.
Also there are many factors that decided things this season:
1 - Luck: Vettel has been unlucky where two races in which he was favourite were ruined by rain. Yes he cant drive as well as Hamilton in rain and thats a weakness, but rain ultimately ruined two of his races and put him many points behind Hamilton. This is undeniable.
2 - Team calls: One of the ridiculous things that some people ( mostly Hamilton and Mercedes fans) have been spreading is that Ferrari, just like Mercedes do with Hamilton, use team calls in Vettels' favour. Although Vettel is clearly the much better driver in Ferrari, not once has this happened this season. A few races back ( cant remember which one now), a call for Raikonnen to allow Vettel to pass was used as an example. It was nothing like what Mercedes do with Hamilton/Bottas. Vettel was on different strategy to Raikonenn that race, much faster and moving ahead swiftly and the race depended mostly on the tires which all teams were preserving. It was in Raikonnen's favour as much as Vettel's favour to have a team call there because Raikonnen's tires were worse and Vettel was going to pass him anyway. And instead of giving the call immediately, they waited for almost 4 laps to pass ruining both of the players' tires. That was nothing like using raikonnen as a tool for Vettel, which can easily be said for Bottas who doesnt only let Hamilton pass, and even accept being prevented from fighting hamilton for a win, but even kept on the track, instead of pitting, and his race compromised just to leave Ferrari cars behind. This isnt even imaginable for Ferrari, whereas Mercedes has been doing it routinely.
So the reason im saying it is because even in qualification for this race, Raikonnen was towed by Vettel although Vettel needed the pole before anything to keep him ahead in the race away from crashes. Imagine Hamilton accepting to tow Bottas. Even if Hamilton was behind Bottas in points , he wont accept that. So Ferrari have themselves to blame here not Vettel.
3 - Mercedes are the favoured child in Formula one. Theyre linked to the British so goes without saying whenever the calls are close things will go Mercedes way. I remember few races back two crashes happened and they werent that serious, but two safety cars came out in the race, something which hadnt happened for many races , and "coincidentally" Hamilton had crashed with raikonen at that time and was in the back. Some people will say its just conspiracy talk but its clearly not coincidence. When Mercedes were on a roll and Hamilton was leading no matter the crashes and how serious they were ,a VSC was all that was given, but Hamilton gets behind, and safety cars are given for much less. Of course some will try to justify that each track has its own features and so each track is treated differently. I think when you watch all these races, you can easily call that bullshit.