Vettel: I don’t want to fail again

Vettel: I don’t want to fail again

Originally written by Joas van Wingerden. This version is a translation.

Sunday 12 November 2017 15:52

Sebastian Vettel believes that failure to come second in the Formula 1 Championship behind Lewis Hamilton would be disastrous for himself and the crew at Ferrari.

After a victory in the last Grand Prix in Mexico Hamilton was confirmed as champion, meaning the likes of Vettel are all now fighting for second, a feat which the German believes should be the minimum target with the title race already over.

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"Obviously your target is to win,” he told reporters.

“That's not in anyone's reach so the maximum situation is to finish second. That's what we try to do, if we don't manage to do that then we've failed.

“So, we've failed once this year already. I don't want to fail again.”

In Brazil GP qualifying on Saturday, Hamilton spun out and will start Sunday's race in the pitlane as his team fought overnight to get his car race ready.

Despite a strong start, Vettel’s championship assault fell apart over Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan in which he had two retirements and a fourth-placed finish which allowed Hamilton to speed away in the standings.

Valtteri Bottas, on pole in Interlagos, is his main challenger and Vettel believes that he needs to stay ahead of the Finn in Sunday's race in order to avoid a shoot-out in Abu Dhabi.

He added: “The motivations are quite high, I have to make sure I stay ahead and beat Valtteri tomorrow and then in Abu Dhabi.”