14/03/2012
NEWS STORY
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Mat Coch writes:
Nothing is certain in Formula One, says Sebastian Vettel in a captivating press conference on Wednesday. The 24-year-old had the audience in fits of laughter as he explained his mental approach to the season, what he's named his new car, and even where he keeps his World Championship trophy.
Red Bull endured a less than trouble-free pre-season, the German in particular suffering as a result of reduced running on the final day in Barcelona last week. Question marks over the RB8's reliability arose after the final update was put on the car, with both drivers having problems.
"It's not disastrous, to be honest with you," Vettel claimed. "You have to understand when it's a new car, especially in winter testing, when you've got a problem, or some numbers start to go somewhere you don't like, then you stop.
"As a precaution you check the car," he explained. "That takes time; you have to take the floor off, certain parts of the car off to have a look. To get to them is not that easy so you lose track time, which is a shame, but that's how it is.
"The cars are built on the limit and we always try to get a little bit more, especially with the regulations staying pretty similar year by year; you try to push the boundaries maybe a little bit more. That's Formula One. Cars are built on the limit and they also do break from time to time."
"People are saying that the upgrade didn't work or whatever," added teammate Mark Webber. "We will have on the car what we had in Barcelona. That was something which worked for us, and we'll keep it on the car.
"We believe it's going in the right direction, but it only takes two or three tenths of a second and we need to do more. Let's see when the gloves are off on the weekend."
While the entire team walks with a confident swagger both drivers admit that maintaining the level of performance which saw the team sweep to both drivers' and constructors' championships last year will be difficult.
"It would be completely immature to believe that nothing ever goes wrong," warned Vettel. "From what I have seen so far, and what I have had to go through so far, I should be smart enough to know that it doesn't always go your way."
The success he's enjoyed of the last two seasons has seen the German become the sports youngest ever double world champion, and sets him up for a shot at becoming the third man to win three consecutive titles. "Talking about the championship at this stage is quite far away," he said. "There are a lot of races, first of all we have to focus on this one, and really go step by step. For sure the target is to win the championship in the long run but it's not keeping me awake at night."
Webber agrees. "We need to see where the car is. After that you need to be in the hunt half way through (the season), then at the end make sure the points don't get out of control like they did last year."
Looking leaner and fitter than ever, Webber's determined words belied his body language, delivering contradicting messages. Fiddling with his phone and staring in to space - all typical Webber traits -his comments seemed hollow and without feeling, as though pre-programmed from the Red Bull driver handbook. "There's no guarantees, but I feel there's going to be some really, really good moments this year," he said without any real vigour. "There'll be some headwinds, that's normal, over a long season… Things can happen to the drivers where we've got to deal with adversity here and there and that's part of competing at this level in any type of sport."
The most convincing moment for Webber came from two sentences, almost lost in response to a question about his rolling one-year contract with the team. "If you're not good enough, get out of it," he scorned. "If you're getting the results, you stay." Said with such conviction and clarity it seemed a statement Webber believed in, in contrast to his other comments.
Less guarded, and certainly less politically correct, was Vettel. The young German had the media eating out of the palm of his hand as he spoke, especially when the subject turned to what he'd named his new car. Last year's RB7 had been dubbed 'Kinky Kylie', because of its tightly packaged rear end, but for 2012 Vettel's all-new RB8 is known as Abby.
"Why not?" he laughed when asked for the reasoning. It's not Voluptuous Abby or Naughty Abby, at least not yet, the German wants to see how she behaves first. Whatever the case, it could have been worse. "Initially we thought of 'everybody's wife'," he said, fighting back a chuckle. "One of the guys gave the explanation that it might not be too sexy because it has a bit of a beak, the car has a not so nice nose, needs a nose job, but runs like a train..."
Clearly relaxed and in jovial mood he also revealed exactly what he's done with his world championship trophy, saying it sits on his kitchen table - but not next to the Corn Flakes: "I'm German, it has to be precise - you can't mix the Corn Flakes with the world championship trophy!" The rest of the trophies are currently sat on the side of his living room, until a shelf unit is installed.
"When I designed and thought about the place and the shelf I didn't have that many trophies," he smiled. "The shelf I'm just installing might be a bit small, but that's a very nice problem to have."
Even with two championship trophies Vettel tries to distance himself from discussions over where he fits among the sport's elite. "It's always a bit uncomfortable talking about yourself and I don't like it that much," he said, almost blushing. As far as he's concerned the greats are Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna… Jochen Rindt and Jim Clark also get a mention.
For the immediate future Vettel's attention is focussed on Melbourne and starting the year. There's no talk of championships, or even winning for that matter - it's too early to tell. "This is the first race, we are here to find out where we are," he said. "This is one of twenty races and counts as much for the championship as race 15 or race 7 or race 20.
"I think in particular this year where you don't really know where you are it looks as if all the teams are very close," he said. Vettel's hot tip for 2012 is Lotus, who he says have the potential to surprise. "Ferrari is one of the teams that has the potential to come back any day," he warned, "so it would be very stupid to write them off before the season has even started." And don't discount Webber, he warned.