The Citizen (Gauteng)

Vettel reflects on bad season

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Abu Dhabi – Sebastian Vettel, so graceful in his handling of defeat by Lewis Hamilton in this year’s drivers’ title race, yesterday began serious reflection­s on his and Ferrari’s disappoint­ing season and a harsh self-examinatio­n.

The four-time champion German, whose Ferrari car was often the fastest on the grid, conceded he had to look at himself first and the team secondly after he had finished second behind new fivetime champion Hamilton in Sunday’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“I don’t think I ever have any problems raising my hand if I made a mistake,” he said, conceding that in 2018 he had made a few. “I have to look at myself first.”

In a spectacula­r season that saw the title race ebb and flow as Ferrari and Mercedes battled for supremacy before an exceptiona­l purple patch from Hamilton secured both titles, Vettel was, he admitted, fallible.

“Knowing as well, as a racing driver, how quickly things can go wrong, how quickly things could have gone differentl­y this year, I think I have to review a couple of things,” he said.

“But there’s other things that went wrong and don’t need a lot of reviewing or over-complicati­ng too much.” –

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