Sebastian Vettel's stunned by COTA DNF: 'No idea what happened'

Sebastian Vettel

Vettel's stunned by COTA DNF: 'No idea what happened'

A scary incident for Seb.

Matthew Scott

Sunday 3 November 2019 21:06

Sebastian Vettel was mystified at his retirement in the United States Grand Prix, having suffered a dramatic suspension failure after just eight laps at the Circuit of the Americas.

Both Vettel and Charles Leclerc suffered poor starts to the race, but the German's was particularly troublesome as he dropped from second on the grid to seventh.

Vettel said he simply had no grip whatsoever, but had just started to get used to how his car was handling, until the rear-right suspension snapped.

Article continues under video

"I had no contact but just wanted to make sure they go through the footage again," Vettel told Sky Sports.

"I just had really poor grip. I was struggling to get the tyres to work. I had a poor feeling straight away, it took a few laps to get the tyres to work.

"From there, I was just about settling into a rhythm, had issues in the right-hand corners mostly.

"I had to get used to it and then the suspension failed."

Ferrari told Leclerc to avoid the kerbs at Turn 8 after Vettel's failure, but the German said he had no clue if that was the answer to his incident.

"I had no idea what it was so that precaution," he added. "We've had enough running without any trouble so I don't know what happened there."

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Bonkers to think Oscar Piastri has had a worse start to the season than Aston Martin

2 minutes ago

F1 Standings 2026: Lewis Hamilton fights back as Max Verstappen melts down

35 minutes ago

F1 teenage star in TEARS after landing his first ever win

58 minutes ago

F1 Results Today: Lewis Hamilton secures best Ferrari result, star takes historic win

1 hour ago

Max Verstappen OUT of F1 Chinese Grand Prix after being lapped

1 hour ago

Fernando Alonso gesture to F1 rival during Chinese Grand Prix sums up dismal Aston Martin