Sebastian Vettel is certain he can improve after a bumpy Bahrain Grand Prix two weeks ago.
The scrutiny has been on the four-time world champion after again spinning when battling wheel-to-wheel and costing himself vital points in the process.
Many have come to Vettel’s defence though, including Lewis Hamilton with whom he was duelling and that support has been welcomed by the German.
“I didn’t know he had said anything nice but it’s nice to hear,” the Ferrari driver said in China on Thursday. “Maybe he’s the only one that doesn’t lack a short-term memory.
“We’ve been around a long time and as much as I want to beat Lewis, he wants to beat me but sometimes you never know what exactly is going on with other people in other teams,” Sebastian added.
During his media session, Hamilton was asked about his approach when racing Vettel, after some had claimed he has the mental high ground against his generational rival.
“I don’t go into a battle with him and feel that I’ve got one up on him, or anything like that,” he said. “I enjoy racing wheel-to-wheel with anyone, doesn’t matter who it is.
“I go in with the same mentality, so it doesn’t matter what driver it is in the world, here or any other class, I’d approach it exactly the same. That’s probably not a good question for me, you probably have to ask him.”
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What made that moment worse, was it came on a weekend when Vettel had been soundly beaten by teammate Charles Leclerc.
“I wasn’t happy with my performance [in Bahrain], [I’m] not happy with the feeling yet with the car, the feeling that I had prior to the season in testing [has gone],” he explained.
“It’s normal that you never get the car that you want so you always have to adapt. Very rarely you get races where the car is absolutely fine and you have nothing to complain about.
“I know I can do better and I know we have lots of races to show and prove that.”