Vettel more focused on car than contract
HAMILTON ON MORE SOLID FOOTING FOR US GP
AUSTIN, Texas: Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel put talk of a contract extension to one side on Thursday and emphasised that his main priority was to help the team build a better car to take on dominant Mercedes.
Formula One’s most successful and glamorous team have yet to win this season, after four-times world champion Vettel enjoyed three victories last year, and are third in the standings behind Red Bull.
Vettel, 29, will be in the final year of his contract next season, when the rules undergo a major shakeup, but he said there was no hurry to get a new deal wrapped up. “I think we are all fairly busy at this time to focus on the four races that are left and focus in particular to prepare for next year so I think that’s where... the main focus lies,” he told reporters at the US Grand Prix.
“I don’t think it’s that important to look into details... my contract is all fine for next year. So with a lot of things happening back at the factory, back in Maranello... we’re very, very busy and that’s where I want also the focus to be.”
Vettel’s 37-year-old Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 champion, is also out of contract at the end of next season and is expected to leave with several candidates in the frame to replace him.
While Vettel is seen as a long-term prospect for the Marenello team, Ferrari principal Maurizio Arrivabene said recently that the German had to earn his place and a decision would be made next year on 2018.
“Each of us has goals,” he told Sky Italia this month. “So it is only right that anyone, no matter who it is, earns their place and their salary.” AUSTIN, Texas: Lewis Hamilton declared himself fully fit for Sunday’s US Grand Prix after a sore foot ruled the triple Formula One world champion out of tyre testing last week.
“I am 100 per cent, feeling great,” the Mercedes driver assured reporters on Thursday. “I basically had an injury that I’ve been carrying generally all year long, in both feet. Just induced by running.
“Unfortunately, the physio said that it just takes a lot of stretching and it just heals over a long time,” he added.
The triple champion was spotted limping at a factory celebration of his Mercedes team’s third successive constructors’ championship and did not attend the Pirelli test in Barcelona on Wednesday as had been scheduled.
“At the time I woke up in the morning, I was feeling quite a lot of pain the day before, and it hadn’t diminished,” he explained at the Circuit of the Americas.
“The most important thing was to be fresh for here and feeling better for here. This is actually the first week that it’s felt good.”
Hamilton needs to win the remaining four races and hope German team mate Nico Rosberg, who is 33 points ahead of him, slips up along the way.
The Briton clinched his third title in Texas last year, winning after Rosberg made a late mistake and gifted him the lead.
Rosberg has won nine races so far this season to Hamilton’s six, but the Briton has a much better career record in the Americas.
“America has always been a good hunting ground for me. I’ve been out here for a week already, so I’m looking forward to fighting again,” Hamilton told reporters.