Sebastian Vettel has claimed it will be August before he considers whether 2017 can see him claim a fifth Formula 1 championship, tieing him with Juan Manuel Fangio.
The German has spearheaded an unexpected Ferrari renaissance this season, using the new rules to rebound from a horrible 2016 to claim three wins in six races and fail to finish worse than second in the other three.
His total of 129 points at this point is only bettered by the 143 he had in 2011, in what would be his second championship year with Red Bull, and sees him 25 points clear of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, after the Briton only finished seventh in Monaco.
“It doesn’t matter,” he claimed when considering his current championship position. “I think I am trying not to look at it until the summer break.
“You try to do your best in every single race and then you don’t need to be a genius to know if you win every race you also win the championship. If we can do that from now on then I don’t need to look at the numbers but of course, that would be hard to achieve.”
In contrast, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff and Hamilton have both claimed Ferrari and Vettel are the quicker combination with the Austrian even suggesting the three-time defending world champions are “underdogs” in the fight.
However, Vettel’s conservative approach is merely a continuation of what Ferrari has done throughout this year, downplaying expectations and take this season one race at a time.
“If we have the chance to do well whatever that is as I said before the race if we have a chance to go for the podium then we will go for the podium and if we get a chance to win then we will go for the win,” the 29-year-old continued.
“That is what I want, the team wants and that is what matters. It would be a shame to miss out on the joy of today by being distracted by the points.”
