20/08/2015
NEWS STORY
Sebastian Vettel admits he is delighted that his buddy Kimi Raikkonen has been retained for 2016.
"I think Kimi is a very good driver," said the German ahead of this weekend's resumption of the title fight, "I've a good relationship with him and that's good for the team, it keeps the stability in it. We can work together for Ferrari, trying to do our best.
"For sure everybody want to race for himself, but I don't think neither he or myself have the egos to stand in the way of the team.
"I was not directly involved in the decision concerning his contract," said the German, "but it is no secret that we get along well together. Both he and I are not wasting energies on petty things, so we can focus on getting back to the top.
"It's difficult to say where our chances stand with regard our competitors here, but obviously we can't refer to the result of the last race. We must come into every Grand Prix weekend with a fresh approach. Having said that, we will give our maximum.
"I keep getting asked about championship chances: mathematically it is still possible to win the title for me, but being realistic we all know that it would be very difficult, given the gap that is still there to our main competitors.
"For sure if we'll have the opportunity like in Hungary to turn things around than we have to go for it. Until now we took the opportunity two times and it worked very well, otherwise we did our best to be right behind, but for sure the advantage of Mercedes is still there and it doesn't just disappear.
"We'll have new rules concerning start procedure this week," he concluded, "but I don't think they are going to change much, apart from less radio coaching from the pit wall and fewer adjustments on the clutch. I think in a couple of racing we'll know what to do properly."
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