- Red Bull
Vettel 'humbled' by breaking records - Horner
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says records mean a "great deal" to Sebastian Vettel, despite his driver's insistence that it is not what motivates him.
Vettel smashed another record at the United States Grand Prix, securing the most consecutive wins in a season and taking one step closer to Alberto Ascari's record of the most consecutive wins of all time (which stands at nine over the 1952 and 1953 seasons).
"Any record for him means a great deal and he doesn't expect to achieve them," Horner said. "So when he does, and he's got quite a few now, he's genuinely quite humbled when he looks at the list of names. He's a huge fan of the sport and knows a lot about the history of the sport. He's one of the few drivers who if you asked him who won the title in 1969, 1973 and 1978, he could rattle off those names. I think that's why it means so much to him."
Vettel was again told to look after his tyres by race engineer Guillaume (Rocky) Rocquelin as he chased after the fastest lap of the race. Vettel now has seven fastest laps this year, a number that cannot be beaten with one race remaining, and Horner said his enthusiasm for setting the fastest lap was sometimes a cause for stress on the pit wall.
"He's very fixated on the DHL Fastest Lap Trophy," Horner joked. "He would be enormously pissed off if he didn't achieve that trophy and his enthusiasm runs away with him at times. I keep telling Rocky, 'Okay, now you can slow him down'."
After dominating the second half of the season, Horner said the competitiveness of F1 relies on Red Bull's rivals upping their game.
"It's not down to us to help the others to succeed. Our focus is very much on ourselves and after each race we look at ourselves to see what we can do better, operationally, technically, reliability of from the drivers. We don't feel in any way bad that we've done a lot of winning. We feel very proud about it."
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