Sebastian Vettel Q&A: No need to feel depressed 09 Sep 2012
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel may have retired from Sunday’s Italian race but he’s managing to keep his spirits up. With McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Sauber’s Sergio Perez taking plenty of points away from championship leader Fernando Alonso, Vettel’s own title chances haven’t been dented quite as much as they could have been. He reviews his Monza race…
Q: Sebastian, let’s start at the end. Why did you retire?
Sebastian Vettel: It was the alternator.
Q: The same issue that you had on Saturday morning?
SV: Yes.
Q: You and your team mate both retired from the race. Does that make you feel insecure about your future reliability?
SV: It has nothing to do with insecurity. It’s just about others finishing the race when we don’t. I think it was obvious that we had some problems on the straight. We haven’t been fast enough there. That’s the way it is goes sometimes at some tracks. And at that point you look to bag as many points as possible. Unfortunately in the end it didn’t work out there due to our reliability.
Q: You were given a drive-through penalty for forcing Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso off the track. Was it justified? Last year you and Alonso tangled too…
SV: I obviously should have complained last year, just as he did today. For sure I was frustrated as it cost me dearly but now it is water under the bridge. As I said I didn’t complain last year and I won’t in the future. That’s not my way of going about things.
Q: He eventually managed to pass you though…
SV: Well, we were simply not fast enough. I tried to defend but in the end I had to give in. In the end everybody could see that we were not fast enough.
Q: How long will it take you to recover from the disappointment?
SV: I’m already over it.
Q: How was the start for you? Did the car feel okay?
SV: Not quite. We had some issues with the clutch so I wasn’t able to zoom into the first corner as I had planned to. But at least I could defend my position and shortly after I was even able to pass by Michael Schumacher. The car felt good at that point. We knew that we wouldn’t be up there with the others on the straights right from the beginning and we knew that the situation would not improve over the course of the race. So overall I would say that we had made the best out of our situation in that phase. The pace was there even if the speed wasn’t.
Q: So, what next?
SV: We know that we have to work hard. We know that we are not fast enough on tracks like Monza, but having said that there is absolutely no reason to be depressed. We have seen that during a race so much can happen so I would say our chances for the championship are still excellent! Keep your fingers crossed for Singapore.
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