Sebastian Vettel: Ferrari driver insists motivation high to perform despite his worst start to the season in over a decade.
Sebastian Vettel is a champion F1 racer in his own right, with 4 World Championships to his name. But he has been going through the worst phase of his career this season, and things don’t seem like improving. He has just 16 points from 7 races – the last time he had less points at this point was in his rookie full season with Toro Rosso.
To put things in Ferrari’s perspective, his teammate Charles Leclerc has 45 points (with 2 podiums), almost a whopping three times of Vettel. And there have constant miscommunication between the German and his Italian employers. All of this started after it was announced that Vettel will be booted out after this season, to bring in McLaren’s Carlos Sainz. But Vettel insists his motivation is high in spite of all the aforementioned factors – because of his Ferrari team.
“It’s very simple – the people around me.”
“When you walk into the garage I am not the only one trying to make the most of the situation. I have a large group of people around me. That’s not just around my car, but the whole garage, which is also Charles’ group. All of the mechanics, all of the engineers – and that’s just the team on the track.”
‘Then there are obviously a lot of people connected remotely at Maranello, and the whole team there. So it’s a big effort. Everybody is putting a lot of effort in to make the most out of what we have today.”
Concerned, but confident about Ferrari’s fortunes
He also spoke about Ferrari’s woeful performance this season, something which has shocked the tifosi. It only got worse after both the drivers finished outside the Top 10 in the Belgian GP. Vettel assets they are working hard to change things around, and take Ferrari back to where they belong.
“Certainly, it’s not the most fun to fight for P13, P10 or P8, but rather we are trying to make it P10, P8, P5 or P3, and hopefully that’s before the season ends.”
“That’s all our ambition, including my ambition. I feel myself part of this team, not just by contract, but by spirit.”
“All of the people, as I have said, have put in a lot of effort over the last couple of years to help me, and it’s only a sign of respect to try to do the same in return. To answer your question, that’s where the motivation comes from.”
“Surely I’m not going to lie, it would be a lot more fun for me, for all of us, if we were fighting at the front and not fighting where we were today.”
