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ESPNF1;Sebastian Vettel says he does not apologise for winning, despite saying sorry to his Red Bull team for ignoring a direct team order that allowed him to take victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Vettel faced criticism following his victory three weeks ago in Sepang after passing team-mate Mark Webber for the lead despite being told to hold position by the Red Bull pit wall. After the race he admitted he had made a mistake and apologised to the team, but in an interview ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix said he does not apologise for winning.
"I think there is not much to add than what happened," he said in video interview with sponsors Infiniti. "I apologised to the team straight after for putting myself above the team, which I didn't mean to do. But there is not much more to say, really. I don't apologise for winning, that is why people employed me in the first place and why I'm here. I love racing and that's what I did."
Vettel said the team orders fallout had overshadowed Red Bull's impressive performance in Malaysia.
"I think unfortunately people didn't see that we performed well on the day - as a team I think we did a very good job," he added. "We got a fantastic result and I think we'd had a very strong weekend in Australia already, even if we didn't get quite the result we wanted. But in Malaysia we were surprised again to be at the top and racing at the top and the whole race we worked excellently well with the tyres etcetera. That's what people forgot and I think what stuck in their heads was obviously the way the race ended."
However, he is not taking Red Bull's pace for granted this weekend in China.
"We learned quite a bit from the first two races but China will be different again," he said. "It's a different circuit, different climate so I think we are still in the learning process. Obviously the first two races helped a lot and I think it was very obvious for everyone to see that working with the tyres and trying to make them work was crucial. It determines your strategy, the race and then your result.
"I think we have still got a lot to learn but I think we made some improvements. We tried to tweak the car a little bit to help that, but on the other hand we will still have to come to China, set the car up on Friday, see how long the tyres last and go from there."
ESPNF1;Sebastian Vettel says he does not apologise for winning, despite saying sorry to his Red Bull team for ignoring a direct team order that allowed him to take victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Vettel faced criticism following his victory three weeks ago in Sepang after passing team-mate Mark Webber for the lead despite being told to hold position by the Red Bull pit wall. After the race he admitted he had made a mistake and apologised to the team, but in an interview ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix said he does not apologise for winning.
"I think there is not much to add than what happened," he said in video interview with sponsors Infiniti. "I apologised to the team straight after for putting myself above the team, which I didn't mean to do. But there is not much more to say, really. I don't apologise for winning, that is why people employed me in the first place and why I'm here. I love racing and that's what I did."
Vettel said the team orders fallout had overshadowed Red Bull's impressive performance in Malaysia.
"I think unfortunately people didn't see that we performed well on the day - as a team I think we did a very good job," he added. "We got a fantastic result and I think we'd had a very strong weekend in Australia already, even if we didn't get quite the result we wanted. But in Malaysia we were surprised again to be at the top and racing at the top and the whole race we worked excellently well with the tyres etcetera. That's what people forgot and I think what stuck in their heads was obviously the way the race ended."
However, he is not taking Red Bull's pace for granted this weekend in China.
"We learned quite a bit from the first two races but China will be different again," he said. "It's a different circuit, different climate so I think we are still in the learning process. Obviously the first two races helped a lot and I think it was very obvious for everyone to see that working with the tyres and trying to make them work was crucial. It determines your strategy, the race and then your result.
"I think we have still got a lot to learn but I think we made some improvements. We tried to tweak the car a little bit to help that, but on the other hand we will still have to come to China, set the car up on Friday, see how long the tyres last and go from there."
won't apologize for winning? that's okay Seb many of the greats have never apologized, but that's not what bothers me and why I'll never support this guy even when he's accepting his 9th WDC trophy. it's the fact that he's not only a sore loser, he also manages to be a sore winner.
Has Mark Webber even driven the reasonably priced car?
Has Mark Webber even driven the reasonably priced car?
Didnt he start off in the minardi?
Being pr1ck is one thing, coming out and saying you enjoy being a pr1ck - well, I think Seb has found a way to differentiate himself form a lot of winners there
The less intelligent observers say anyone could do it in that car.
The guy is just embarrassing himself now. Firstly he said he didn't mean to disobey orders, and had overtaken Mark by mistake, and was very very sorry. Now he is saying, yeah it was wrong, and Im sorry, and I shouldn't of put the team above myself - but if the situation arises again, I'll probably do the exact same thing again.
He should of come out with the statement, right after the race and said: "yes I disobeyed team orders. I am a racing driver, and I want to win. And thats what i'll do each and everytime".
Id have had more respect for him if he'd done that - instead of all these half-truths and bullpoo contradictory PR quotes.
Well there'll be no turning down engines from either driver now, or nursing engines, or nursing tyres. If the gloves are off and Vettel is not going to be obeying orders(and I presume neither will Mark) in situations where things on the car are marginal, then he must expect to be in situations where his car fails. He may have won those points last race but he now leaves himself open to loosing a lot more than that.
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