30/10/2015
NEWS STORY
Sebastian Vettel has said his target for the remainder of the season is to finish runner-up to champion Lewis Hamilton.
The title lost, the German admits that he will have to settle for runner-up, an ironic admission considering that along the pitlane former Maranello incumbent Fernando Alonso quit the team having finished second in the title race three times, finally deciding enough was enough.
"Second place is the target," Vettel told reporters. "First is unfortunately out of reach, second is better than third, so we try to go for second."
Whilst, elsewhere in the paddock,. Lewis Hamilton was telling reporters that he has no plan to help his teammate in his fight for second, Vettel was crystal clear when it came to his target.
"I want to beat Nico," he said. "That is the primary target that I have, and the rest doesn't matter too much to me what they do."
Those heady days of domination in 2011 and 2013 - the era of 'the finger' - a distant memory, the German refuses to think of he and his team as underdogs.
"I don't consider myself the underdog," he insisted. "I know we are not the favourites but we showed since the beginning of the season that we are not somewhere in the midfield. If we get our act together then we have a reasonable chance of finishing on the podium on a regular basis, and that is what we have achieved so far.
"We know where we want to go and where we want to be in the future," he added. "There is a lot of work still ahead of us and certainly we will be a lot happier if people didn't call us the underdog but the favourite in the future."
Check out our Friday gallery, here.