F1 News
Date: 23/September/2013
Sebastian Vettel led from lights to flag in Sunday’s
Singapore night race.
It was the Red Bull star’s seventh victory from the 13
rounds and, with a lead of 60 points, the young German is firmly on course for
a fourth successive F1 crown.
But Vettel’s unstoppable form isn’t to everyone’s liking and
he was again on the receiving end of booing by fans after the race.
Such behaviour had been expected last time at Monza, home
turf for Ferrari, but Singapore was a more neutral venue.
Vettel brushed off the boos, which he believes are from
travelling Ferrari fans.
“It’s called travelling, they are on a tour, they come to
every race. Fortunately we keep winning so they’ve got a reason to boo,” he
said.
“It’s not nice but I think you should look around the
grandstands. Most of the fans are dressed in red, Ferrari has a very strong fan
base for a reason: they have a lot of tradition in Formula One, they’ve been
around longer and won, and they’ve been more successful than any other team.
“There’s more and more dressed in blue [Red Bull fans] so we
are doing a good job on that front. But obviously they [Ferrari fans] are quite
emotional when they are not winning and if somebody else is winning, they don’t
really like it.
“They are wealthy enough to go to a lot of races, Monza or
take the flight to come here to Singapore. As long as they keep booing, we are
doing a very good job so that’s the way I see it.
“It’s not people from Singapore or from one country only.
It’s normal in sports if some people support one driver then they don’t like
another driver to win. Equally there were a lot of German flags around the
track, there are a lot of Germans here in Singapore, it’s a very international
city.
“The parade lap was quite nice and also the lap after the
chequered flag there were a lot of people cheering. Obviously I didn’t give
them the most exciting race but on days like this, I really don’t mind.”
With Vettel unchallenged up front, it was again left to
nearest title rival, Fernando Alonso, to entertain the fans - charging through
from seventh on the grid to second place.
But the Spaniard again surrendered points to Vettel and,
with his hopes of a first Ferrari crown fading into the distance, is starting
to turn his attention to 2014.
“I think we start from zero next year, completely from zero.
Big change in regulations so it’s our best opportunity to close the gap,” said
Alonso.
“This year was a continuation in a way. I think we started
in a good way, we were competitive in Australia, maybe not in qualifying but in
the race we were taking care of the tyres very very well, together with Lotus.
“We won in China, we won in Spain and then we seemed to lose
a little bit of performance, especially when the 2012 Pirelli tyres came back
so that was probably our point in the championship; when they changed the
tyres, we said bye bye.
“For next year I think we start from zero. Really we will
put all our effort and hopes into 2014, because starting from zero is our best
opportunity to close the gap with all the top teams.”
Despite such talk by his main rival, Vettel insists nothing
is decided with six rounds to go.
“I’m not really looking at the championship too much,” he
commented. “Obviously we’re in a very strong position but I’m enjoying the
moment. I love racing and the car’s fantastic and it doesn’t happen by
accident. Everyone in the team is working very hard.”
The Korean Grand Prix will be held on October 6.
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