Mattia Binotto insists winning the world championship is not a "taboo" topic for Ferrari.
His comments come as pundits like Mark Webber suggest Mercedes' five consecutive 1-2 finishes mean Ferrari should think about switching focus to 2020.
"Mercedes is doing better than us, but there is time to catch up," boss Binotto insists.
"Above all it is our duty to do it," he told Sky Italia.
And so he said that within Maranello, winning the world championship is not a "taboo" topic.
"It wasn't a taboo at the start of the season, so it doesn't have to be one today," said the Italian.
"Yes, our expectations were higher after the winter tests. There is a points ranking that doesn't prove us right.
"But I believe that performance in Formula 1 is never absolute, it is always relative to your opponents."
There is talk that Binotto, who doubles as Ferrari's technical director, has acknowledged that the basic concept of the 2019 car is flawed.
But Binotto says some races have shown that the car is good.
"Our opponents have scored more points and they won the last race in Barcelona," he said.
"But it is also true that in Bahrain we could have done much better, maybe even in Baku. Overall, Mercedes is doing better than us in this relative comparison, but there will be tracks that can help us or on which we can be competitive.
"In a broader sense we must recover but there is time to do it. As a team we must demonstrate that we are capable of interpreting the car and knowing how to improve it.
"This is the car we have today, but race by race we must try to do better and only in the end we will do the sums," added Binotto.
