Sebastian Vettel wasn’t worried about his critics despite been thrilled to end his 22-race run without a win at the Singapore GP.
The German capitalised on Ferrari bringing him in a lap earlier than the drivers ahead to move up from third to first, eventually claiming a record fifth victory at Marina Bay.
After a tough year, Vettel was clearly emotional on the podium following his 53rd Formula 1 success and thanked those who have stuck by him throughout.
“I really want to thank the fans and obviously the last couple of weeks for me have been not the best, but it’s been incredible to get so much support so many letters so many nice messages,” he said in parc ferme.
“That gave me strength, belief and I tried to put it all into the track today, into the car and it’s nice when it pays off.”
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His win in Singapore was particularly important having faced a barrage of criticism following the Italian Grand Prix, where he again spun out of contention while young teammate Charles Leclerc claimed Ferrari’s first victory at Monza since 2010.
“Nothing was wrong in the last couple of weeks, I knew that we weren’t really far away from a breakthrough,” Vettel explained.
“Charles has been very strong, and was right to win the last two races, but I knew as well on our side we just need to keep doing our job and sooner or later, things will fall into place.
“I’m happy that it was sooner rather than later.”
Asked if Sunday gave him a sense of satisfaction following that criticism, he continued: “Maybe less satisfying than you think.
“Things were maybe not falling into place, plus I messed up in the race in Monza, that’s my mistake otherwise, it’s a long race and things can happen. Overall, it’s part of the game I think.
“I’ve been around now for a long, long time, and it’s just how the tide turns sometimes. I have the highest expectations for myself, and I’m not happy when I’m not delivering what I know I can.
“Certainly I had moments this year where I was struggling to get it out, so I know that I can improve from there, I can’t be happy with that. Equally, it wasn’t as bad or disastrous as maybe people put it together.
“But I think if you’ve been around for such a long time and you’ve had so many good moments, obviously you get hammered when there are bad moments. It’s just part of the game.”
And as for the strategy call that allowed him to gain four seconds in just one lap to complete the monster undercut on Leclerc…
“It was a very late call. I thought it was a bit early because I wasn’t sure if we could make the tyres last in the last stint,” Vettel explained.
“Then, obviously, I just gave it everything on the out lap because I saw the two cars in front of me not pitting, especially Lewis. I was then, the lap later, very surprised to come out ahead.”