After a couple of races not particularly covered in glory, Formula One World Champion Sebastian Vettel comes to Hungary saying that’s just the way it’s going to be...
Sebastian Vettel has won six races out of ten this year, and in the other four taken three second places and a fourth. He comfortably leads the F1 Drivers’ Championship. But all is not rosy in the garden of Red Bull as Vettel’s fourth place in Germany is his worse finish since Monza last year and the generally improving Ferraris and McLarens seem intent up on making a fight of it this season.
Vettel may take some satisfaction - though probably not much in the way of consolation - from having consistently stated that a dip in Red Bull’s dominance was inevitable at some point this year, and simply a fact of life when competing against teams with the resources and calibre of Ferrari and McLaren. It was a view he espoused again when sitting down the press before the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. This is what he had to say…
Seb, what have you done over the past few days? Have you analysed the performances from the past races?
"What did I do? I went back home, had a couple of days rest and did some training in preparation for this weekend. Obviously we have analysed what happened last weekend, but, y’know, there’s only three days in between the races, so it’s not much time for the team because we have to get all of our stuff back into the trucks and come here. It’s a lot of work and very short nights. We had a deep look but now we have to re-focus on this race. We cannot spend too much of our time thinking about Nürburgring instead of driving here."
'We can’t change the result at the Nürburgring but we can change the result here.'
What do you take away from the results in Germany?
"Well, we finished third and fourth, it’s a result that’s not a disaster but we’re not happy with it. So, we can’t be satisfied but we have to accept it. For here, obviously our target is to do better than third and fourth and, yeah, we have a couple of things to play around with to try to make the package a little bit more competitive again. I think Nürburgring was pretty tricky, particularly for myself: I didn’t really feel comfortable Friday through Sunday but I think we have understood most of it - and this is a different track with different conditions.
"We can’t change the result at the Nürburgring but we can change the result here. There’s no point trying to find any excuses, that race is done. I think the people who finished ahead of me deserved to finish ahead of me but as I said, I’m not happy with that and I want to have it the other way around this weekend.
Why did you not feel comfortable in Germany? Was there something wrong with the car or the tyres?
"No, I think it was a tricky weekend with the conditions. It was very cold but I don’t want to blame it on conditions. Obviously, Mark was a little bit quicker throughout the weekend and I was struggling a little bit and I never really found a good balance. But, as I said, though we didn’t have the easiest time and I think we have understood most of it.
"We’ll have more time in the break to look at the Nürburgring again with the conditions we had and compare that to other races - maybe this one as it’s straight after - but it’s hard to say within only a few days."
Do you take it personally when you don’t win?
"It doesn’t hurt but obviously I’m here to win and I’m not here to finish second, third, fourth, fifth. It depends on your day. I think in a way we were not quick enough on Sunday, so it is stupid to say we had a chance to win and didn’t. Fourth place was more or less our optimum.
"We have so many races in the season. You will have some where things might not come together as they should: sometimes you struggle with balance and face other problems and you have to go through these times. It was not the easiest race, as I said, but we collected a lot of points, which was very important but for here we want to be on the top again. I don’t take is personally but I’m not happy finishing second or third; obviously I want to win."
There’s been a lot of overtaking this year. Is that down to KERS, the DRS or the tyres?
"I think it’s the tyres. KERS depends if you have a different level of charge relative to your opponent. It can help in some circumstances but even if you’re empty and he has a charge I think you can still defend - but the tyres always make a big difference.
"You see especially after a stop when the front runners drop into the midfield: usually it’s quite straightforward to pass. Also, if you’re fighting cars with similar speed, usually towards the end of the stint you see more a pace difference than you did at the beginning with fresh tyres."
Have the recent circumstances [blown diffuser regs, rain, temperatures etc.,] helped your opponents more than they’ve helped Red Bull Racing?
"Every race is different. The conditions are different, the circuits are different. We were very competitive here last year, but the car isn’t the same as last year, it’s a new car and a new challenge. We’ll see what we can do. But we expect, like we do more or less every weekend, Ferrari and McLaren to be very quick and to be our main rivals. I think you can say there has been a tendency over the last three, four, five races for that to be the case."
Want more?
- Head to redbull.com's Hungarian Grand Prix event page
- Read Sebastian Vettel's blogs
- Six of the Best: F1 Hungary Winners
- Mark Webber F1 Blog: Hungaroring | Coming in from the cold
- Keep up with the Red Bull F1 Spy on Twitter
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