Sebastian Vettel remains convinced that he can still win this year’s world title, despite having failed to score in the last two races.
The young German currently sits 25 points behind Jenson Button in the standings after being hit by a string of reliability problems. Despite this, the British and Chinese Grand Prix winner expects to still be in contention come Abu Dhabi.
“It is still possible,” Vettel told reporters on Thursday. “I am not giving up, definitely not. For sure, 25 points is not easy, but we have seen how quickly things can change.
“I think one thing that helped is Jenson has not been consistent in the last few races. I don’t know what was wrong, but sure it helps us.”
Although the German admitted to being frustrated by his last two retirements, he still believes that there is plenty of time to make amends.
“We should have been scoring points in the last two races, but we did not. For sure that did not help, but it remains open, we will push, we will fight. We are in the hunting position, we have to score big points.”
Vettel has only two of his eight allocated engines remaining heading into the final six races of the season. A factor which the German concedes will hamper his challenge.
“We are considering all our options and it probably means less running for myself on a Friday, less practice, which is not an advantage,” he said. “But at the end of the day, do you want to take the penalty? Yes or no.
“Maybe it is better to have some time off, some coffee in the break, than start 10 places back at some races. We will see. From now on, we cannot afford to have any mistakes or failures again.”
