Sebastian Vettel insists he won’t return to Hockenheim “occupied” by memories of his race-ending crash 12 months ago.
The Ferrari driver was leading well at his home race before a rain shower led to tricky track conditions and saw Vettel slide into the barrier at the Sachskurve.
Many see that day as the moment the 2018 title race swung in Lewis Hamilton’s favour and led to the several mistakes he has made since, including smashing into Max Verstappen’s Red Bull at Silverstone.
“Overall I am more looking forward than looking back,” Vettel told the BBC ahead of this weekend’s German Grand Prix. “So it is not that I am occupied by what happened last year.
“I will go to Hockenheim thinking: ‘Oh, this is where I binned it last year.’ I can laugh at myself and I can laugh about that, and I make a lot of jokes about that as well.”
At the time, the 32-year-old concedes, it was a painful moment, but not in the way many would expect.
“It did hurt a lot because it was such a perfect weekend,” he said.
“With the pole on Saturday and just the atmosphere, you rarely have these weekends and still, if I look back it is one of the best weekends I ever experienced.
“Now, you can say horrible because I parked in the gravel and not in the parc fermé, but still, from an atmosphere point of view, the whole thing, it just was missing that final bit.
“So it did hurt, but I wasn’t stuck there for long. It was my mistake, but it was a relatively small mistake with huge costs. I have had huge mistakes in races with small costs.
“But, for me, that’s racing. As beautiful as it can get, it can also be cruel sometimes.”
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In his preview for Ferrari ahead of this weekend, however, Vettel did admit redemption was on his mind.
“We have got to make up for last year, especially myself and I look forward to racing in Hockenheim,” he noted.
