Austrian GP | Vettel: a lot of speculations about my future
Not an easy situation for Sebastian Vettel as he thinks this is not anymore the Formula 1 he loved when he was a child. Could the Mercedes dominance lead him to retire from Formula 1?
Ferrari certainly didn't have the start of the season they expected. The Scuderia was just too far from Mercedes in terms of pure speed, as the silver arrows took 8 victories out of 8. The championship standings are now compromised for both team and drivers, as Lewis Hamilton can already see his sixth world title. What can turn out the season now for Sebastian Vettel? "Don't look back but forward. I'm not looking back, that's not the way I function. I move forward, the team is full of ideas and we hope that they will work", Vettel said. "I'm not stupid either though, I know time doesn't help, races are passing and however looking at Mercedes in front don’t help. I believe on Sunday anything can happen, let's see from Friday where will we be this weekend", he added.
For sure, an important topic about this lack of competition is tyres. Would it be different with last year compounds? “I don’t know as we have a different car. As it is now, the Mercedes did a great job and it’s hard to catch up. For ourselves, we struggled more this year with these tyres, to get them into the window for qualiying and race”, Vettel reports.
“Also Mercedes had front blisters in France. Our race pace was okay on Sunday, it wasn’t the strongest pace out there because I think Mercedes controlled the race from the front. But this is a different track, different layout, it’s hard to predict. Last year we struggled with the rear left to get to the end and Mercedes struggled a bit more than us, but these are different cars and tyres so this year is different.”
Speaking about his future, he went back to his words after Canadian GP: “I said that this Formula 1 is not the sport I fell in love with, that's what I said in Canada. As a child you fell in love with the cars, with the drivers. As a child you were very pure, you're not interested in rules, in under/overweight, legal/illegal, that's what I wanted to say.”
About retirement at the end of the year: “There are a lot of speculations. but I'm here, I love racing, I think these cars are great fun to drive, the fastest we ever had. I think it can get better, yes. But as i said before we'll see what the future brings. But where will I be next year, I'm not thinking about that.”
He also spoke again about rules, after a penalty costed him the win in Montreal: “The problem by now is that we have so many rules, I think it’s just a bit of a mess. I can't think of any other sport when case by case things are exactly the same. And particularly in our sport, I think it’s very difficult. We have to simplify, give freedom to race each other. That's what I would like.”
Vettel thinks drivers should have a big role in this: "We generally were very happy when we had opportunity to attend these meetings. We have a clear understanding as drivers of where we want to go. I think for us the most important thing is that we feel that we have a voice, we are listened, we can have an impact. There’s the chance to do things differently, change things for the better. There will be opportunities to change and see how it works. Obviously we are not deciding but it would be nice at least to know we can have an impact, helping taking better decisions."
