Sebastian Vettel has admitted his career in Formula 1 may not be truly complete without a championship win with the “greatest team” Ferrari.
The German came his closest to achieving that dream last season as the Scuderia closed the gap to Mercedes, however, a crash in Singapore and reliability problems at the next two races ultimately gifted Lewis Hamilton his fourth crown.
Ferrari is expected to be in the thick of the title fight again in 2018 though, and speaking ahead of the season-opening Australian GP, Vettel revealed how much getting the job done would mean to him.
“I am searching for the ultimate satisfaction which is to win with Ferrari who are the greatest team in history and the greatest team in the paddock,” he said in Thursday’s press conference.
“That is my ultimate target now, and to win against the best which arguably Lewis [Hamilton] is one of them.”
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Expanding on the Hamilton point, the 30-year-old admits beating the Briton in a head-to-head fight would perhaps mean more to him than it would to end the streak of dominance by Mercedes.
“If I looked at the people I raced against it has always been the same people from karting, I didn’t race Lewis in karting but I was aware of him,” he said.
“We met a little bit later in F3 when he was a lot better than I was and ultimately then we met in F1.
“I think then you care more about who you race against and what it means as it gives you more satisfaction,” Vettel concluded.