Vettel not envious of Hamilton’s likely sixth title

2019 Mexican Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel says he doesn’t feel envious of Lewis Hamilton’s success as his rival is poised to clinch his sixth world championship title.

Since Vettel won the title for the fourth time six years ago he has seen Hamilton catch and surpass his achievement. Hamilton needs only four points from the remaining three races to become the second driver in F1 history, after Michael Schumacher, to win a sixth title.

Asked whether he envied his rival’s achievement Vettel said: “I wouldn’t say ‘envy’ because I appreciate his efforts, his performances, his success a lot.

“I think you have to because it’s obvious. If not, then I don’t know, it wouldn’t be me and I think it would be in my world and values, whatever, it would be wrong.

“So I think he deserves it. Together with his team he’s done a great job. Obviously, in a way you could say, I’m jealous because we wanted to be there and we are not. But [it’s] not that I envy him. I think, you know, it’s the name of the game.”

Ferrari have become stronger in the second half of the season, taking six pole positions and three wins since the summer break. Vettel is hopeful that will prove a springboard for Ferrari’s championship bis in the 2020 F1 season.

“There can be one winner and one person finishing second, third and so on,” said Vettel. “So it’s the nature of the sport and obviously he’s occupied that space, which means that whoever else there’s only second, third, fourth, fifth and so on left. So that’s how it is.”

“But there’s no guarantee that it’s going to be like this next year,” Vettel added. “So there’s always hope looking forward.”

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10 comments on “Vettel not envious of Hamilton’s likely sixth title”

  1. Different words, but the meaning isn’t much different from what he’s said previous years.
    ‘We’ll come back stronger’
    ‘We’ll take the fight to them next year’

    What will happen is that Ferrari will set headline grabbing lap times in testing again, the Tofosi will get excited ‘It’s Ferrari’s year!’ despite it being a repeattof the previous years testing and then come the season itself, they’ll either start strong, then hit a development wall or they start completely on the wrong foot and won’t start to come good until too late in the season.

    And that’s without the drivers making silly mistakes and bone headed strategy calls from the pit wall.

    Yes, Ferrari currently have the fastest car in a straight line, but it suffers immensely in the slower corners, which is were Mercedes is stronger and is able to produce the bulk of it’s superior race pace.

    What I fully expect to happen is that Ferrari, in an attempt to solve the loss of speed through corners, will end up compromising that straight line dominance and be no better off in the long run.

    I’m dreading the moment someone at Ferrari uses the word ‘Radical’ to describe their development decision as it means that the car will ultimately fail to deliver it’s promises. Just as it has for many years now.

    Oh, and I think vettel is fibbing, he is envious of Hamilton’s championships as it wasn’t all that long ago that he himself looked like the one that would match and potentially overtake Schmachers records, and didn’t he express his desire to do just that some years ago?

    1. @nikkit I’m convinced by your wise words. As a tifoso, I’m stopping now in believing that next year will be better and I’ll just to turn to golf carts races as my favorite sport.

      What do you expect him to say? That they’ll never win again? Come on. Haven’t you learned how a driver thinks? Do you think they go racing without believing they’re the best and that given the right conditions they can win every single time? Of course you’re not a racing driver if you stop going for gaps; but you’re not a racing driver if you stop thinking that you can win.

      And BTW “suffers immensely” is a bit too much after Singapore updates.

      What really bothers me is that more often than not people can only see that Ferrari can’t beat Mercedes. They don’t see where they stack compared to the rest. It’s not only Ferrari that isn’t able to catch up with that monster that is Mercedes, it’s the whole F1. I think it’s only partially due to money; we should give credit to Toto, Lewis & co. for the incredible job they’re doing (and that’s something Vettel is saying, believe it or not).

      1. You’re mostly right on this @m-bagattini
        VET may or may not be sincere about his feelings on HAM’s achievements. I honestly don’t think VET has anything to be ashamed of. He has made a tremendous success of his racing career. But he is not as good as HAM; he’s right that HAM deserves all the accolades he is receiving now.
        On 2020, I think Ferrari will maintain their advantage. Merc are best when conditions keep changing (see how 2019 aero-tweaks knocked Red Bull off their 2018 trajectory, but gave Merc a new lease of “dominance”). I was looking forward to a situation where LEC and VET will be taking points off each other (Ferrari wins WCC), and HAM’s super consistency steals the WDC. But I’m not that much confident these days. I think LEC has the speed and learning curve to win it all.

  2. Jose Lopes da Silva
    29th October 2019, 12:44

    And Vettel did not attack Rosberg in Abu Dhabi 2016. Otherwise Hamilton would be Hepta, looking forward to Octa.

    1. Good point!

    2. Even if Vettel had overtook Rosberg Hamilton wouldn’t have won in 2016

  3. Vettel is right to cast a cold eye.
    One Ferrari title = 6 Mercedes titles
    [except Vettel will never win that Ferrari title !]

  4. There is a difference between being envious or jealous and looking on wistfully wishing it were you with the new champion’s crown. Vettel is mature enough to assume it is the latter. From his point of view he sees no reason to doubt it. He has four already so he knows what to do.

    Personally I think Vettel is more likely (but not certain) to get another championship before Leclerc gets his first. Hamilton demonstrated on Sunday how much experience and professionalism and an ability to learn are so important to a championship campaign. Can Leclerc mature and learn faster than Vettel can get his act fully together again for a consistent almost error free season? Vettel demonstrated he has some way to go on Sunday when he claimed not to know he pushed Hamilton off the track and with his harum-scarum wiggle around back markers and getting to close to his team mate. Similarly Leclerc has much to learn about using his tyres wisely and challenging the pitwall on some of their odd calls.

    Ferrari could win a championship next year but Mercedes don’t like losing and you can be sure Brixworth and Brackley are already flat out on significant power and performance upgrades for next year. Meanwhile Ferrari have to find some fairy dust to sprinkle on the rather fragile team adhesion it suffers from.

  5. When Fernando was at Mclaren, the media kept asking him if he regretted leaving Ferrari because they were winning races with Vettel, all he said was that, they aren’t winning world championships, so there is no difference.

    Years later, nothing has changed.

    1. That theory doesn’t work at all cause alonso wins 2 titles at ferrari, 2017 and 2018.

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