Sebastian Vettel not worried by 2018 mistakes


Sebastian Vettel insists he is "not worried" by his growing list of errors in 2018 but has admitted whoever makes the fewest mistakes is likely to win the championship.

The Ferrari driver lost the lead of the championship race last week in France after a mistake at the first corner relegated to him to the back of the field and a fifth-place finish.





Vettel made another costly error in April's Azerbaijan GP, locking up when he tried to overtake Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas, and was subjected to stinging media criticism in the wake of his self-induced French GP setback.

But ahead of this weekend's race in Austria, live on Sky Sports F1, a defiant Vettel said: "I'm not worried. I don't think there's something fundamentally wrong."

The four-time world champion continued: "I think it's racing. There's some errors that you shouldn't do, some errors that happen - it depends on the type of error. I've had a lot of races, it happens - unfortunately it can, but I try to minimise it."

Both of Vettel's mistakes in France and Azerbaijan were made when trying to overtake. But Vettel, who now trails Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton by 14 points in the standings, says he won't curb his attacking instincts.

"It's a long way and I think it's normal that some things happen along the way," said Vettel.

"Obviously you're also trying to push the limits. It didn't cross my mind when I was in Baku to just stay behind, surrender and let the other person past and collect some points. That's not how I define racing. Sometimes it works out and it's great, sometimes it doesn't.

"At the end of the year, you try to get everything right and not everything wrong. That's natural. We'll see where we end up. We have a strong package, some races very strong." “If we consider the whole weekend, France was a much better one than Barcelona, and there are similarities between the two circuits in terms of asphalt and because we had the same tyres. Our pace was good, but there’s no point now in looking back too much, it was what it was. As for Austria, I always enjoy coming down here, both in winter for skiing and now for the Grand Prix. Our car is strong and this track should suit us in principle, although now it’s impossible to predict how competitive we will be, with the weather and all the variables of a racing weekend”.