Sebastian Vettel returns to Germany ‘keen to do well’ as he aims to preserve his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton at the Hockenheimring.
Hockenheim is close to Vettel’s home town and the German is looking forward to racing at his home race.
“Hockenheim is about half an hour’s drive from where I was born,” said Vettel. “So it’s not exactly like racing in my backyard – I don’t have a backyard that big – but it’s probably the closest you can get!
“Obviously, we are keen to do well here.”
Vettel won two weeks ago at the British Grand Prix and whilst he knows that was an important result, the four-time champion is focused on getting everything right at what he describes as “not the easiest track”
“The last race in Silverstone was important for us, because we had not been very strong on that track before; but it’s a thing of the past now and we must focus on this one,” said the German.
“This is not the easiest track to get everything right, there are many types of corner and long straights, and I think with this generation of cars we’ll be very fast here.
“Turn 6 looks like a good place to overtake, with the new DRS areas, and since there is another straight after the corner and another braking point at the end of it, it could become a place for exciting moves.”
Scuderia Ferrari have always had a strong support in Germany as Michael Schumacher led the team to four consecutive titles and the latest German to race for the prancing horse is pleased to see a lot of red shirts in the crowd.
“It’s nice to see so many red shirts here, the passion for Ferrari was born in Italy but it spread all over the world and it got to Germany for sure,” he said.
“We should be in fairly good shape here, but let’s see what happens.”