Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Red Bull Ring, 2020

Vettel “happy I only spun once” in tough race

2020 Austrian Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel said he was happy he only spun once during the Austrian Grand Prix after struggling with the handling of his Ferrari.

He finished 10th after spinning early on in the race at turn three while trying to overtake Carlos Sainz Jnr.

“To be honest, I’m happy that I spun only once,” said Vettel. “It was very difficult. It got very tight. I think Carlos, one of the McLarens turned in and I was just on the edge because I wanted to be as close as possible and lost the rear.

“But to be honest, I lost the rear a couple of times today. So as I said I’m happy that it happened only once.”

At the time of Vettel’s spin Sainz was running behind the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. Vettel’s team mate went on to finish second.

“Charles, I think, was trying to defend his position and Carlos in the last second was turning in fairly aggressive to I guess line up for the next straight,” Vettel explained.

“And then I was a bit locked in. I didn’t really have a place to go to avoid contact. I tried the kerb as much as I could, I locked the rears and basically spun around. Once I was sort of committing to trying to get as close as possible for the next great straight then suddenly I found myself not having any place to go.

“So it was obviously a shame that I had that lost the car there because it was quite costly. But I was struggling generally throughout the race with the car feeling and confidence also under braking so it probably didn’t help make the most accurate judgement in hindsight.”

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34 comments on “Vettel “happy I only spun once” in tough race”

  1. Piotr (@piotrzukowski)
    5th July 2020, 18:48

    As sad as it is for me to say it, I think it’s time for him to retire and I think this will happen at the end of this season.

  2. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    5th July 2020, 18:53

    Really get the impression he just doesn’t care anymore.

    1. Pedro Andrade
      5th July 2020, 19:05

      Was going to comment the exact same thing, he just does not care about it, he really should end it and save what’s left of his legacy.

      1. Lol, you guys got this all wrong.

        After last 3 years there cannot be further damage done.

        But improvements can be made rathrr easilly from poor finishing record.

  3. A little bit of self humour isn’t bad for the body :P

  4. Were are all the people that were screaming vettel is one of the best or that hes on Hamiltons level now

    1. AllTheCoolNamesWereTaken
      5th July 2020, 19:42

      When looking at the entirety of Vettel’s career, I’d say that he is one of the best. Mediocre drivers don’t win 53 grands prix – not to mention four championships on the trot – regardless of how good their car is.

      I will concede, though, that the past couple of seasons haven’t done his legacy many favors. He was inconsistent during 2017 and the first half of 2018 (there were moments of brilliance, but also a number of highly publicized instances of “What was he thinking?”), and ever since Hockenheim 2018, he’s been on the decline. I really do believe that race broke him. And after today’s display, I agree with @rocketpanda: It looks as if he simply doesn’t care anymore. I hope that he will soon do one of two things: rediscover his motivation, or retire from Formula 1. Watching him spin away his legacy as – legitimately – one of the best, is just sad.

      1. Ferrari and Vettel are just no match. Ferrari is a team of incompetent Italians. He should have never left Red Bull for them. Red Bull is run by Brits and Austrians. They are a much more professional team. Not too much drama and politics as you have at Ferrari.

        Vettel isn’t about drama. He isn’t about politics. He is one of the purest humans in Formula One. I believe Vettel has never been happy at Ferrari. He tried to fit in somewehere he never felt fully comfortable, and it has cost him the focus he needed for racing.

        Go back to Red Bull or head to McLaren and things will turn around. Verstappen will be a tough teammate. But RBR will always give Seb equal machinery and a fair chance to fight.

        1. like they did it with Webber… please !
          and maybe you didn’t watch last few years but Vettel last year and the year before, could have done a better job… remebr all the mistake he did in the past seasons at ferrari…..sorry at the incompetent italian ferrari

      2. Vettel was on hamilton’s level as a driver in 2017 btw, he fell off after.

    2. Hamilton was on a crashing level aswell. Nowhere near Vettel awesome jokes though.

    3. @carlosmedrano
      In all fairness to Vettel, we have to wait to see Hamilton driving for Ferrari with the pressure coming from all sort of angles and then make the comparison or the just wait and see Vettel driving that rocket of a Mercedes with Valteri Bottas as teammate.

      1. Hamilton has proven himself many times on the track racing. The only time Vettel has ever proven himself is when he had the best car.
        Vettel has 4 titles but he is in the same league as the 1x winners.
        You want a comparison? Look at how many times Alonso has showed his skill under the same pressure even with inferieur cars.
        Even Verstappen has wiped the floor with Vettel many times. Leclerc also destroys him.
        There is no need for a comparison. Its already clear to everyone.

        1. True, vettel can be a strong driver only with a strong car, like someone said germany 2018 was a problem for him, if you go look at the race before his mistake, he was dominating, was the red bull era vettel, the big problems started there.

        2. Look at how many times Alonso has showed his skill under the same pressure even with inferieur cars.

          Theeere it is!

    4. @carlosmedrano – Dude, for a F1 fan you don’t seem to grasp the quintessence of motor racing: the symbiosis between car and driver. The better it is, the better the result. Well, say whatever you want about Vettel. But the synchrony he pulled on his day was top-3 if not ever, his contenders on the matter being Clark, Schumacher and Ascari, two of them most definitely GOAT material.

      His domination peak was superior than Hamilton’s at the biggest domination ever, so far and counting. Something no Senna did, nor Prost, Piquet, Lauda… nor Ricciardo will ever do.

      Bring on the saltiness of saying it is all on Newey (despite the fact the blown diffuser was Brawn’s introduction of a concept already present at F1 decades before). Even so, he mastered his equipment like no other and conquered the strongest class field ever with 6 crowned champs (all of them with winning package at hands) as the cherry at the top, along with a future champ and other race-winners to spare.

      No matter how much he embarrasses himself today, his legacy will stand. Salty tears won’t ever change that.

    5. @carlosmedrano

      Only blindsided Vettel fans were screaming he was as good as Hamilton. Even during his glory years most fans didn’t rate him as highly as Hamilton or Alonso. Personally, I would rate Vettel at the same level as Rosberg and Button. He might have 4 WDCs, but so would Button and Rosberg if they had the best car on the grid with a past his prime Webber as their teammate.

  5. Depends on the individual, but I know if I was getting sacked at the end of the season, my commitment level may take a drop. Getting paid whatever happens.

  6. “happy I only spun once” – Sebastian Vettel 2020.

    1. He was probably trying to talk about how bad his car was but in the context of his recent history it was really embarrassing. So sad for him right now.

    2. Yes, was a fun comment!

    3. I don’t know if Vettel was joking and making the most of the sad situation.. or whether this really is a new low for Vettel.

  7. It seems these situations just hound Vettel. But I totally saw this coming when I saw Sainz back off on the outside; I knew he was going for the up and under and Vettel would probably be thinking, he’s going to get caught on the outside and run off the track and I’ll just drive by on the inside. It’s easy enough when you are watching from a high vantage point than when you are in the car, and probably very frustrated about being in a Ferrari unable to swat away a Force India and McLaren.

    1. He went for it, nowhere near doable. In best case they would bounce wheels.

  8. I find it amusing that nobody has quoted Senna on “no longer being a racing driver”, yet all’s knickers are in a twist demanding Seb retires because he no longer has it.

    1. @faulty it is also fairly well known Senna didn’t actually mean it and was using that phrase to try and cover up his decision to deliberately ram Prost off the track – say what you want about Vettel (and many will), but he wasn’t trying to deliberately hit Sainz with that move.

  9. Another one of those strange spins from Vettel, where he is on the inside yet ends up spinning (like at Monza with Hamilton). I don’t know if he tries to avoid making contact at all costs or if the Ferrari really is that twitchy to drive.

    1. Also with ricciardo US 2018

    2. I don’t think this one was such a strange spin. We’ve seen some really bizarre ones from him where even a small touch on the front has resulted in him losing the back end, but on this one wasn’t like that, he locked the rears trying something from way too far back and probably would have spun even if he’d somehow found a way to not touch Sainz’s rear wheel.

      When you see the onboard, he was already on his way round just before the contact.

      I think he was probably running quite a lot of rear brake bias for that corner to get a little extra rotation for the exit onto the straight and with a mix of slipstream and changing the line into the corner, simply overcooked it and locked the rears up trying to rescue it.

    3. I was thinking similar. If other people back out of a move at the last minute, they may swerve or lock up, but few seem to just spin sympathetically. Seb seems to do that every time and I can’t fathom why.

  10. Jokes aside, how bad must that Ferrari handle. And how good of a driver is Charles to finish 2nd.

    1. The safety cars and Red Bull unreliability didn’t hurt him either.

  11. OK who said sbinnala?

  12. William Eddy
    7th July 2020, 17:03

    I think Ferrari should start building the new Hypercar for LeMans that will be introduced next year (assuming that’s not postponed due to virus). This would allow them to use their extra engineers who can’t work on F1. They could build and sell several as well as creating a factory entry. They could then rehire Vettel to drive one along with Raikkonen and maybe Massa. That would be a great team. These old guys would only have to race a few times a year and it should be fun for them.

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