Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has opened up about the positive messages he got from fans in time of difficulties after his win in F1 Singapore GP.
Among all the F1 drivers in the current time, Ferrari’s Vettel has been subjected to the biggest criticism considering his lack of win/wins since the 2018 Belgium GP, while even teammate Charles Leclerc has to his name.
The mistakes made by the German has sprung up profusely but at the same time, Vettel has remained grounded in his handling and approach. Post his first F1 win in 23 races in Singapore, Vettel was in a reflective mood.
He didn’t think it was satisfying per say to answer the critics but had good words for the fans, who continued with their support even in times like the four-time champion has faced.
“There’s still a way [to receive messages even though I am not on social media],” started Vettel. “Obviously people were able to send messages before social media, even if that’s very difficult to imagine for some people.
“A lot of little notes, handwritten letters, which if people make the effort to write something, when you find a bit of time in the evenings to go through, it’s really encouraging I have to say.
“Years ago, y’know, when you start its very difficult to imagine that people follow you and these kind of things but recent years, especially here, especially in Asia, I have a lot of support, a lot of fans that come over and over again.
“As I said, I just got a lot of energy in the last couple of weeks, just from messages that I received from the racing world, from people that I know, from a long time ago but especially fans.
“After Monza, and then coming here, so, as I said, people sharing their own story of when things are up and when things go down which for us everything is centred around racing but really it’s not the most important thing and, when you read through some of the notes and people’s struggles in life, some very intimate and private, you know it gets to you.
“It gave me a lot of belief and confidence to just keep trying. Obviously nothing was wrong in the last couple of weeks. I knew that we weren’t really far away from a breakthrough moment, sort of, but surely Charles has been very strong and was right to win the last two races.
“But I knew on our side that we just need to keep doing our job and sooner or later things will fall in to place. So obviously I’m happy that it was rather sooner than later.
“In terms of answering critics, it is maybe less satisfying than you think. As I said about form and stuff, I don’t think there was anything wrong. So it wasn’t like we were lacking speed or anything.
“I think I could have done a better job in qualifying. Obviously recently, I think there was nothing wrong in general. Things weren’t maybe falling in place, plus obviously I messed up in the race in Monza, that’s my mistake.
“Otherwise, you know, it’s a long race and a lot of things could happen. But yeah, overall, it’s part of the game. I’ve been around now for a long, long time and it’s just how the tide turns sometimes.
“I have the highest expectation on myself and I’m not happy when I’m not delivering what I know I can. Certainly I had moments this year when I was struggling to just get it out.
“So, I know that I can improve from there, so I can’t be happy with that – but yeah, equally I know that it wasn’t as bad or disastrous as maybe then people put it together.
“So, I think if you’ve been around for such a long time and you’ve had so many good moments then obviously you get hammered when there are bad moments. I think that’s just part of the game.”
Speaking more on the race and the strategy call, Vettel conceded that it was indeed a late one as it wasn’t hugely discussed. The idea was to be safe from Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, who was a quiet threat to Ferrari.
While Leclerc remained upset but getting a Ferrari 1-2 on a circuit like Singapore, where they struggled last year and were predicted to again, it was a big morale booster as per Mattia Binotto.
Read how 2019 F1 Singapore GP panned out
Valtteri Bottas says he knew Mercedes strategy for Singapore GP
Haas found plastic in the car of Kevin Magnussen – photo