Friday September 25, 2009
Vettel insists title race is very much alive
SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX
SEPT 25-27
RED Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has vowed to fight to the wire in the world championship race despite his chances suffering a hammer blow at the last Grand Prix in Italy.
The German only finished eighth at Monza and has to make up 26 points on championship leader Jenson Button and 12 points on the Briton’s teammate Rubens Barrichello, but he is gunning to take it to the Brawn GP pair.
“From now on our target has to be to win,” he told the official Formula One website ahead of this weekend’s Singapore race, the 14th of the season with three more to come after that.
“We will see every race separately, and in the end we will count the points and will see whether it is enough or not.
“It’s true the gap is quite big and it will be very difficult to catch up, but be sure we will try. I will fight to the last breath and minute.”
Vettel, who last month extended his contract with Red Bull Racing until 2012, is the youngest winner in F1 history, having scored a shock triumph for Toro Rosso in last year’s rain-hit Italian Grand Prix.
He entered F1 as a test driver for BMW Sauber and competed in one race for the team, as a stand-in for Robert Kubica at the 2007 United States Grand Prix.
Vettel then joined the Toro Rosso outfit in August that year and remained with them until the end of last season.
Vettel said he was rapidly gaining confidence.
“I am still the same person, but for sure you learn every day, you try to improve together with the team, and I can say that after a couple of months I feel very much at home,” he said.
“When you start finishing on the podium or winning races it helps as you get more respect from people. And it helps if you have an opinion — you have the weight to get things done.
“The more you move up the pecking order, the more careful you get, as you might find your notions immediately in the media.
“Probably it was more relaxed 20 years ago. But in the end you are who you are, and you cannot change for anyone, and you shouldn’t.” — AFP
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