Vettel mistakes a result of 'panic'

Sebastian Vettel's glut of costly spins in grands prix may be down to the Ferrari driver's panicked approach to skirmishes. That s the view of Formula 1 racer turned commentator and pundit Martin Brundle, who says "clumsiness" cost Vettel victory at the United States GP.

Vettel had to fight from the back of the grid after spinning early in Italy and Japan before suffering a similar fate at COTA as a result of contact with Daniel Ricciardo.

The German recovered to finish forth, but it did little for his fading title hopes as Lewis Hamilton was third.

Highlighting how costly Vettel's error had been, his team -mate Raikkonen held off Max Verstappen and Hamilton to take victory in Texas and Brundle pointed out the lack of errors from the Finn as a sign that the Ferrari car is not to blame for Vettel's misfortune.

"Vettel, using the prodigious Ferrari straight-line speed, passed Daniel Ricciardo into Turn 12 but arrived at the apex too hot and ran wide," Brundle wrote for Sky Sports.

"Side by side into Turn 13 they firmly touched and, just as in Monza and Suzuka, Vettel's Ferrari turned around.

"He might be doing something on a reducing throttle and panic braking as he recognises contact is imminent, causing the front axle to load up and the rear to unload.

"Or simply the Ferrari's brake and engine braking/harvesting parameters combine to effectively pull the 'handbrake' on. We haven't seen Raikkonen do that though.

"Given Vettel's pace he could have won the Grand Prix without this clumsiness.

"Ferrari went the wrong way with car updates back in Singapore and it's taken all this time to understand that despite the might of the team and their comprehensive tools and data, and drivers who have over 500 starts combined. That tells us more about the complexity of the cars than anything else."

Vettel will see his chances of winning the title extinguished if Hamilton finishes seventh or higher in Mexico this week.

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