Vettel talks risks, wins and World Championships

F1 News
Date: 29/August/2011

Sebastian Vettel took another step towards defending his F1 title with his first ever victory at the magnificent Spa-Francorchamps circuit, in Belgium on Sunday.

Vettel came into round twelve on a three-race losing streak, his longest of the season, but left with his seventh victory of the year and - with seven rounds to go - has now scored more points than during the whole of 2010.

But despite being 92 points clear of Red Bull team-mate and nearest rival Mark Webber, an advantage of almost four race wins, Vettel insists the title is far from over.

"Of course I’m very happy with today’s result and it brought us closer to our final target, but it’s still a long way," claimed Vettel, who snatched the 2010 title from Ferrari's Fernando Alonso at the very final race.

"If you look at last year, yes, by this time it might have been different. But if you look at how quickly things can change - if you are out in two races and someone else has good races - it could change.

"So all we do is try to get the optimum every time, like today. When the chance is there to win, we go for it. When I was driving around, passing people around the outside here and there, I wasn't thinking about the championship.

"If there’s room to overtake, I go for it."

But Vettel, 24, who crashed into Button in last year's Belgian GP, did admit to weighing-up the potential risks of an overtake a little more carefully than in previous years.

"If the risk is too high, then naturally I think you shouldn’t do it," said the German. "I’ve done it in the past when it didn’t work, as Jenson can tell you, so it’s not necessary to take that risk."

With victory at Spa, highly prized among racing drivers, added to his growing list of conquests, there is now only one event still absent from the Vettel CV.

"A home win in Germany is still missing," said Vettel. "Every year I go there and we are quite confident, but so far it hasn’t worked, so we will see in the next couple of years.

"For now, I’m very proud of the races I have won. Obviously this win at Spa is a very important one. It’s nice to join the famous guys who have won here and it’s one of the nicest tracks we have."

Vettel has won 17 races since making his full-time F1 debut in 2008 and is in his third season at Red Bull Racing.