Scuderia Ferrari‘s Sebastian Vettel says his 2009 title defeat to Jenson Button was ‘harder to take’ than both his 2017 and 2018 defeats to Lewis Hamilton as the German targets back-to-backs wins to end a disappointing season.
The German driver was pipped to the championship in 2009 by just eleven points with early season mistakes in Australia and Malaysia ultimately costing the then 21-year-old his first world title.
“Three times now I have been in a position like that, with 2017, 2009 and this year,” he said ahead of this weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
“Probably 2009 was the worst one and the lowest point.
“You never know what the next year brings so you never know whether you are going to get another chance.
“I have worked very hard for it and I am confident it will come but ultimately I don’t know, you can’t predict. None of those moments were nice.”
The drivers title may be done and dusted but Ferrari are still in the race for the constructors world championship.
The Italian team need to claw back Mercedes’ 55-points lead if the are to prevent their German rivals from winning their fifth consecutive constructors title.
Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd.
Should Mercedes seal the title at Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace it would put them one behind Ferrari’s all-time record of six consecutive constructors championships from 1999 to 2004.
“We have two more races to go and I am looking forward to racing”, said Vettel, who remains confident that a strong end to his season could sway the team’s championship back in Ferrari’s favour.
“I think this is not the right time to draw conclusions as the Championship is not completely over yet.
“I would like to win these last two races. The last two Grands Prix were better for us in terms of pace, so hopefully we can continue like that and we be able to win.
“For sure, we’ll try to do the best that we can. We want to focus on winning the Constructors’ Championship, trying to put our main competitors as far back as we can.”
Typically with Brazilian Grand Prix’s of the past, rain is forecast throughout the weekend at a circuit synonymous with aquaplaning.
“As for this circuit, it is difficult to predict what will happen, as Interlagos has an unusual layout, one on which… things just happen.
“We’ll see how the weather turns out, but I believe it’s going to be a challenging weekend.
“Along the way something went wrong for us this year and we need to make sure we learn from it; clearly we missed something and it’s up to us to fix it and make sure it won’t happen again”.
