Vettel's new book: 'How to lose a world championship'

Former Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve believes that Sebastian Vettel's decision to try and overtake Max Verstappen during the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday ultimately cost him, and reckons the German has made so many mistakes he could write a book on how to lose the title.

At the midway point of the drivers' championship, Vettel and Hamilton were closely fighting it out for the title, but since the summer break Vettel and Ferrari have allowed complacency to creep in, with numerous mistakes derailing their assault on the top spot.

The latest error came from the German at Suzuka when he attempted to overtake Verstappen only to be sent in a spin, costing him ground on Hamilton, who went on to cruise to victory.

Villeneuve facetiously claims that the series of errors, including the one in Japan, could see Vettel write the book on failure this campaign.

"He was too far behind when he overtook," Villeneuve told Sky Italia.

"Max couldn't just say 'Please go past me'. Vettel tried something and didn't play dirty, but it was too risky.

"He could write a book about his season called 'How to lose a world championship'.

"The key difference between him and Hamilton this year is that Lewis first thinks about the situation before making an aggressive attack."

The 1997 world champion admits he cannot fathom the decline in Ferrari's form, and thinks Vettel has accepted already he won't win the title.

"It's not easy to understand Ferrari, and not just because they lost some races. After some mistakes they never returned to the right path and that's impossible to understand from the outside," Villeneuve continued.

"Already at the last race we could see that he has accepted he cannot win. You can see that he is more relaxed already."

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