Sebastian Vettel has moved on from the start crash that took him out of the Singapore Grand Prix and remains confident he is fully in the Formula 1 title fight with Lewis Hamilton.
The German fell 28 points behind the Mercedes driver as a result of his first retirement of the season, the largest gap between the two at any point this year, with many believing that could signify the key turning point in the championship.
However, speaking to reporters at the press conference at Sepang on Thursday, Vettel played down the situation and also rejected thoughts that he now needs a Hamilton hiccup to be back in contention.
“I don’t think we do because we have a lot of races left and I think we have a strong car,” he said. “We will see, I have a lot of races left and I’m not too fussed about the amount of points. Obviously, it’s never good to be behind and we would like to be in front, but we are not so we have got to take it from there.
“It depends on how many points we have at the end of the year.”
The Ferrari driver also played down any impact the crash had on him psychologically, suggesting the way it happened meant there was little reason to look back and ponder.
“I think it would have been more difficult if I would have lost the car somewhere in the race, then it is obviously different,” he said. “(At the start there’s) not much you can do, but I think it’s part of racing and it’s also not the first time I’ve been in a situation like this and it’s also probably not the last.
“You are not hoping for it to happen again, but it is part of racing and these things happen. There’s not much you can do and therefore not much point in trying to look at it again and again.
“I think your time and your energy is much better spent looking forward.”
Teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who was also in the press conference, also played down the impact of the result believing the Scuderia can still compete with Mercedes over the final six races.
“In Singapore, Sebastian was first and I was fourth in qualifying so if you compare it with Mercedes we were better,” the 2007 world champion said. “Then we basically didn’t race.
“I don’t know why you look at things in such a negative way. It’s up and down, some circuits are better for you, some for the other guys but it’s a normal story and there are so many reasons for those.
“The whole season is one season and you count the points at the end. It’s pointless to look at one race here, one race there. It’s over the whole year that counts.”
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As for whether Ferrari can hit straight back at Sepang, a circuit where Vettel beat Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in a straight fight two years ago, Kimi was cautiously optimistic.
“We hope for the best, tomorrow we get some ideas but to be honest in some weekends things start a bit better and in a more straightforward way and everything becomes easier and in others, you have to struggle a bit to find the right way,” he said. “But then come Saturday or Sunday it’s usually okay.
“It’s impossible to really answer, I have the feeling we should be okay here but I might be right or I might be wrong.”
