- Red Bull
Vettel: My season looks worse on paper
Sebastian Vettel says his 2014 campaign looks worse than it actually has been and thinks he has been unfortunate not to win a race for Red Bull this year.
Despite scoring four podiums this year, Vettel's struggles at Red Bull have been magnified by Daniel Ricciardo's three victories in his first season at the team. Vettel, who is set to leave Red Bull at the end of the year, says he was bound to have a reverse in fortunes at some point after winning four titles in succession.
"Well, it's been a different year, but on paper I think it looks worse than it was," Vettel said. "Many times we didn't have the chance to show the potential we had because we had other factors slowing us down, but that's how it goes sometimes. If you look at all the grid, sometimes it hits you a bit more, sometimes a bit less, that's the way it goes. Over the course of a lot of races or a lot of seasons I think everyone is in the same boat so maybe in a way it is good to pack it into one season!
"It's much easier to learn from bad races or if you have a bad year, simply because it's obvious. If you have a good year people tend not to focus as much on what to improve as everything is going well. In both cases you have a chance to learn so I'm not a fan of saying only the bad races can teach you a lesson; there's a lot of stuff in good races which will also help you go forward."
Despite struggling to replicate the form which saw him win four world titles between 2010 and last season Vettel, who looks set to be driving at Ferrari next year, says he has been unfortunate not to add to his 39 career victories during this campaign.
"Yeah, there has been [good moments]. Highlights in terms of wins and stuff hasn't been the case yet but we've been working very hard. We started on the back foot if you look where we were after the winter and testing in pre-season but I think we've done very well, we're the second best team behind Mercedes who seem to have quite a big gap to everyone else, so we have done very well. Personally I think there were races where if things had gone a bit different I could have won as well but it didn't happen, that's how it goes sometimes."
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