Sebastian Vettel heads into this weekends Austrian Grand Prix knowing he is only three penalty points away from a one-race ban, but the Scuderia Ferrari driver will continue to race as he usually does.
Providing the German does nothing to earn himself three more points this weekend at the Red Bull Ring, two of those points will disappear ahead of the British Grand Prix next week as the points only stay on a drivers Superlicence for a maximum of twelve months.
Whilst acknowledging how close he is to a ban, Vettel is not letting it distract him from his ultimate goal of fighting for the championship, and is planning to give it his all this weekend as he strives to break the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s recent run of domination of the Red Bull Ring.
“Certainly it is not a record I am proud of,” said Vettel on Formula1.com. “I think we [drivers] all have some points and I happen to be the one with the most. I am for sure not planning to get any more of these points.
“Of course I will learn from this and make sure it will not happen again. Should I be in a situation like this again I will certainly hold myself back. I am for sure not going into a race planning to screw-up.
“I am planning a very ‘normal’ race on Sunday – by squeezing out anything that is possible without catching the interest of the stewards! Also I think that if you ask people if something like this has happened to them in their life before, and someone tells you no, then I am not sure if I would believe this.”
