Vettel admits he needs to improve for 2019
Sebastian Vettel has admitted both he and Ferrari need to improve in order to get back into shape to win a world championship.
The Italian team finally looked on track to end a more than decade-long title drought earlier this year, until car and driver problems put the advantage back with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.
Ferrari recovered its performance in Austin, but German Vettel admits it is too late.
"We went back to a much earlier version of our car, and it seems to work better that way. It was suddenly easy to drive again," he said.
"But it's never good to have to take a step back with important parts," Vettel insisted.
Vettel himself has also been roundly criticised for a spate of driving errors.
"There are many things that we have to look at in the winter, including myself. I have no problems admitting the mistakes I made," he said.
"I think the crucial factor is that for most of the season we did not have the speed that we would have liked, and this sometimes caused other problems that did not help us," added Vettel.
"In general, we have the potential to do much more, so in some aspects we still have to grow and learn in all aspects."
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A poor workman blames his tools,4/5 races lost to his errors ,he only has to look in the mirror to see who is to blame,
As a general proposition your statement is true. In this specific case your claim is tentative at best. Vettel has already stated very unequivocally: the fact that the car lacked speed pushed the drivers to take excessive risks, and those were contributory factors to the mistakes made. Vettel generously admits that he himself needs to improve, but that doesn't give you, or any of us, a licence to make him be a dumping ground.
On a public forum I actually think that it does give Bent Spanner the licence to speak as he or she see's it. The fact that Seb admitted that he needs to improve isn't him being "generous" but rather, simply realistic. Despite having some excellent races this year, particularly in the first few races, generally speaking Sebs had a shocker this year and that's following from a bad 2017 and his many errors haven't always been when his car has struggled for pace. This weekend for instance (but there have been others) they had a quick car; in race trim probably the quickest and it was a car that his team mate got the win in.
His personal stock has been significantly downgraded this year and ultimately pushed Ferrari into switching Kimmi for Charles as they signal that they have at least some concerns on their lead driver. Just look at what the tv pundits and Newspaper columnists are almost universally saying now and this doesn't make good reading for Ferrari or Seb.
Undoubtedly a loss of performance didn't help him in a few races but ultimately he's made far too many bad calls for a driver who is as talented as he is. This allowed Hamilton to get away from him in the Championship and so added to his pressure. The speeding under red flags last week to me is just a symptom of the fact that his head is not where it needs to be. And were it not for the collision with Daniel I think he'd have beaten both Mercedes on Sunday. He seems mentally exhausted and I just hope that he comes back next year and performs to his best because that's what is good for F1.
That is why God created public forum. Everybody can have an opinion and be right! Ain't America great!?
I would never make a nasty or rude comment to any driver,its reported that Sebb/Ferrari have lost 80 points this season as fact .I raced motorcycles and cars for many years as a young man.The pressure on all the team is huge non more so than the driver ,,Sebb is 4 times world champion ,but of late his frustration is clear for all to see ,I wish him a better season in2019,
Most people see his frustrations, agreed. The problem is that just about everybody blames Vettel, exclusively, and attributes that to some sort issue that the shrink should resolve - Vettel's personal issues, and Hamilton's superiority. There is a piece today which openly admits that this is a Ferrari issue, as much as Vettel's, if not more so. The opinion quoted does not name, but clearly implies that Ferrari needs someone like Toto Wolff or Christian Horner. In other words much, if not most of the issue is with Mauricio Arrivabene. I shall repeat what i said earlier: fish stinks from the head.
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