Vettel plays down F1 quit talk
Sebastian Vettel has once again played down suggestions he is contemplating retirement.
With Ferrari struggling against Mercedes, Charles Leclerc pushing for priority and Vettel out of love with F1's strict rules, some believe the German could quit at the age of 31.
What is true is that Ferrari's great hope of finally winning in 2019 is now being lost amid a clear decline for the Maranello team compared to a year ago.
"Maybe I'm not smart enough but I don't think much about these things," Vettel said after Paul Ricard.
"Honestly I don't see so many differences compared to the last years. We are better than in 2015 and 2016, and while it is true that last year at this point we were more competitive, this is what we have.
"We can't stop to think how we were doing ten races ago, we have to understand what we should do better now.
"So I love racing and nothing changes, in fact I enjoyed Paul Ricard a lot even though I would have liked something more than fifth," Vettel added.
The quadruple world champion therefore played down the prospect of quitting or leaving Ferrari.
"I do not want to be anywhere else, so I have not thought about it," said Vettel.
"We would like to be in a different position now, but it is up to us to close the gap to Mercedes. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about other things."
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Seb has never been the best driver. At the time of his run of championships he had the best car. The car allowed him to run off at the front, he did not have to race anybody. He has as has been proved on a number of ovations noskills when it comes to close quarter combat, or the skill to pressurise a mistake from other drivers. Sorry I don't rate him and never have.
Why now? Because he's been found out.
Only had 3 decent partners in his whole career, first one was Ricardo who beat him to such an extend Vettel run away, 2nd one is Leclerc who might also cause Vettell to depart a team and the 3rd partner is Hanna.
In financial and securities markets there used be an overplayed jibe about traders: you are only as good as your last trade. This now, has moved to F-1: the driver is only as good as his last race.
Everyone seems to be qualified and eager to dump on Vettel. You all seem to know it all - in retrospect. It would be interesting to see what you said about Vettel the first half of the 2018 season when the Ferrari-Mercedes match was about even.
I said 'I bet he'll panic under pressure and fall apart like a cheap watch'
You have me lost. Are you sure your post is intended as a response to my post?
No Simon,it was not in response to your post, It was meant for the Seb knockers. I bet they would have a large laundry bill if they could sit at the side of him on the track.
Of course it was you said "Everyone seems to be qualified and eager to dump on Vettel. You all seem to know it all - in retrospect. It would be interesting to see what you said about Vettel the first half of the 2018 season " and I said 'he'll fall apart like a cheap watch' and guess what he did
Vettel, as with any multiple world title holder, has worked for his achievements. The road is not smooth and the lows challenge champions to reach deeper
So John, what I see from your post is that Hamilton is not a great driver either, it's the car that is making him look good? I totally agree. Love to see Hamilton in a sub performing car and see how good he really is. I also didn't like some of the things he pulled on Nico Rosberg when they were partners. As far as Seb, I like him, but I have to agree with the posts. Sorry Seb.
rlm, I agree!
In support of your argument start here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/8859254/Lewis-Hamilton-and-Felipe-Massas-five-collisions-in-2011.html
Wow! Wow!! Wow!!! Did you mean what Nico Rosberg pulled on Lewis. Unbelievable, people have so short memory. The more you hate Hamiltion, the more he rises!
I have no idea what the first half of your post means or refers to. You have to be more specific.
With the second half I agree 100%. People max out on, tire of something being pushed all the time. Something lauded and praised excessively becomes an object of dislike and thereby paints itself into an underdog role, and that makes many people to support it. Hamilton is in exactly that territory - he gets the support of those who support brazen winners and the sympathy vote of those who support those who are being dumped on.
Not a bad strategy by the Governator.
Why does a driver of Seb's unquestionable Talent get down rated so much. He has just proved how good he is at Paul Ricard by getting the Fastest lap which is a great achievement and which shows the problem is the Ferrari keeping the tyres in the optimum window which only the Mercedes is doing. Stop knocking Seb. Try driving on a Track day and see how you get on.
Robert Wheatley please....Seb`s fastest lap on a brand new soft tyre was only 0.2 faster then Hamilton on a 30 laps old hard tyres. maybe a great achievement comes from Charles qualifying in 3th and Seb`s a distant 7th....and please don't compare none of us with a F1 driver its just wrong!
Actually it was even closer than that, 0.02 of a second.
How many comments about the same subject, id est master Sebastian! If Vettel does leave, most of his critics will find it difficult to find another F1 driver to scrutinise him to such a degree.He is one of the most genuine guys and does not believe in celebrity status or pretence . How about talking about Hamilton's hair dos and his tatoos and his false modesty! Nobody otherwise denies his driving ability and his success with Mercedes, but like anything else nobody knows how long it will last. So my opinion is that nobody should be put on a pedestal and worshipped as a god.
Jadra, im not critical of Sebastian, im an Hamilton fan no doubt but let me tell you that I love Seb and I honestly wish he could fight Hamilton on a regular basis Seb`s a great driver no doubt and hopeful;ly he wont walk away from the sport, to be honest I wish more drivers could get in the mix Lec, Verst, Bottas, and the rising Maclarens so we (fans) could watch a great show. Even as a Hamilton (Mercedes) fan there is no fun to watch him running away with the championship on the 8th race of the year.
Alonso left F1 last year and did I miss his loss?.....Frankly No. Great Driver no doubt but divisive and no team player (as much as an F1 driver can be a team player). With Seb I think for me at least it's different and if he went next year I would miss him and F1 would too. He has lots of detractors at the moment but inside he's still a special talent but Ferrari are competing against a driver in Hamilton who appears to be even better and rarely makes mistakes and against a car in Mercedes which is as dominant this year as it was in 2014-2016, so what do we expect to happen. Even if Seb were a tenth or two quicker than Lewis, he'd lose most weekends at the moment.
Ferrari followed the Adrian Newey aero package this year, along with Red Bull and most of the rest of the grid. Mercedes didn't and it has paid off big time, so circuits where RBR dominated last year belong to Mercedes this season.
But the car and the driver are only part of the issue and for me Ferrari need to create a team capable of winning. They seem so frightened of what the Italian Press will say that they think every solution needs to be resolved by the next race. They need to reflect, accept that this year they've not got it quite right and use the rest of the year to build a stronger team and car for next year and then Seb might get back his mojo.
Black Dog, what you say has a lot of truth to it but I do really like Alonso. He at least shot straight as does Seb during his interviews. I’m pulling for Alonso to get his Indy win. I like most of the drivers in F1 and at least Formula 1 is about racing. I hate the small engines. I was raised to believe that racing was to go as fast as you could but here, in America, with NASCAR that has changed since I was a child. You could watch a race and every car looked just like the car that you could go to the dealership and buy. Like they said, win on Sunday and sell on Monday, but they have totally ruined it. Back then you would drive as fast as you had the nerve to go. They developed a Plymouth Superbird with a big wing that was so fast that they outlawed it and it went downhill from there. That started the control thing. They have now what they call the Car of Tomorrow or the COT and every car is exactly the same. They have little forms that they run over the car to make sure it conforms to what NASCAR says is should be and then they wrap it in their paint jobs. They even put restrictor plates on the engines to hold the speed down on the faster tracks so that all run around in big packs and you can bet that there will be a wreck that will take out a lot of the competitors so trying to predict a winner is impossible. Maybe that’s not so bad when you can almost predict then entire ending line up for Formula 1 races but most of us don’t like it and NASCAR is losing some of its staunchest supporters because of it.
I don’t want to see Formula 1 go the way of NASCAR but I see the beginning signs of it doing just that. They have reduced the size of the engines several times. I remember standing by a track when the V12 went by and the sound was amazing. Now? Big deal. They try to make it sound better by reducing the exhaust restrictions but a V6 is a V6. They reduced the downforce. Then took out the ABS. We could go on and on but you can see where it’s going.
Now to Mercedes. I believe that racing isn’t racing if you restrict the fastest car but instead the others should work to become as fast if not faster. You’re right that Ferrari should just accept this year but again and begin working on next years’ car. This year is a bust. Accept your loses and get on with developing a competitive car for next year. Hamilton, would he still be as dominant in a different car? He is amazing at qualifying but if you’ve the car he has why wouldn’t he be great? He can even dial it back and still beat everyone else. His only competition is Valtteri. Once he gets the lead, which isn’t difficult if you qualify pole every race, and gets the one second lead ruling out DRS he’s already won the race. So Vettel has to drive on the ragged edge every second just to try to keep up where Hamilton is just out for a Sunday drive. Oh, he’ll say that he was pushing it but we all know that is just to keep us interested and hoping for him to stumble. So is it any wonder Seb trips now and then? He’s pushing it as hard as he can, but then you have fuel to consider, tire wear, etc. Let’s go back to refueling, tires that wear, and get back to real racing.
Sorry about going on and on but your post got me to rethinking the whole thing. Let’s hope F1 does the same.
Thanks for that Rim328. It's nice to hear another perspective. We are in agreement that something is broken and it needs to be sorted before those of us who love F1 fall out of that love.
I'm a McLaren fan but I'm drawn to drivers with exceptional skill, that's why I rate Seb. I also consider Fernando to be an incredible racer but it's for other reasons that I don't miss him from the sport. In relation to your question regarding Lewis I think he would be exceptional in any car that you gave him but if that was a Williams then he wouldn't be troubling the score sheets very often. So obviously the right car is vitally important but as you will know all the team principles know exactly who outperforms their cars and that's why the best drivers get the best cars.
In terms of qualifying Lewis is the best on the grid IMO but not invincible, better than Fernando or Seb would be on most race weekends. Max would now give him trouble in the same machinery but my money would still be on Lewis.
In terms of getting the car home I always considered Seb and Fernando to be supreme, although it was noticeable when Seb was leading a Grands Prix, whereas Fernando simply made the best out of a bad job. However, over the past few years I think Lewis has overtaken Seb in this regard.
In "out and out" racing no one is better than Lewis. Fernando would be my pick of those who's closest to him in this regard followed by Max now that he's obviously changed his Gung-ho approach and even Daniel when he's on it.
So in essence, whilst I may have some inconsequential reservations about some aspects of Lewis Hamiltons off track life-style choices and personality, I think that we are witnessing one of the greatest drivers of all time. I suspect that this won't be apparent to some until long after he's left the sport and never for those that can't look beyond the colour red.