Sebastian Vettel has once again moved to squash rumours of him possibly retiring from Formula 1 at the end of this season.
It is a story has rumbled since Monaco, when it was reported by Joe Saward that the German was contemplating ending a career which began with BMW in 2007.
And asked about it ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver insists he is not ready to walk away yet.
“I never said anything like it, so I don’t know where they come from,” Vettel claimed.
“I think I can stop whenever I want and the team can probably kick me out whenever they want, but I’m very happy with the team and I hope the team is happy with myself.”
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It was then the 31-year-old repeated his familiar rebuttal of having not yet achieved his most important in goal in F1.
“I’m very hungry and I have a mission here to win. That’s really the only thing that matters to me, winning with Ferrari, and that’s what I’m working for,” he added.
“Currently we’re not winning, you can do the maths, so we still have something to do.”
Vettel also claimed he is prepared to wait for the Italian team to put themselves in a position to again be competitive, but did concede progress needs to be made.
“The next races will be really crucial for us trying to get back to the front and give a much harder time to Mercedes,” he said.
“Once we can establish that, then we have plenty of reason to look forward. It will be crucial to do it rather sooner than later, but at the moment I’m not too fussed at looking at ‘this is the date it has to happen’.
“Clearly we are behind, clearly there is quite a big margin between Mercedes and the rest, so we have to close that gap and get ahead, otherwise it will be difficult to turn it around,” he added.
“I don’t think you need to be a genius: before the summer break we need to be in very, very good shape to then use that momentum for the second half to turn it around.”
