Vettel again downplays retirement rumours

Michelle Foster
Sebastian-Vettel-looks-up-PA

Sebastian Vettel again downplays retirement rumours

Facing an uphill battle to even fight for this year’s World title, Sebastian Vettel says he has “not thought” about retirement.

The recently-married Ferrari driver is having a tough time out on track this season.

He has yet to win a grand prix with his best performance being Canada, where he crossed the line in first place but fell to second when a five-second time penalty was imposed.

His Montreal disappointment came just weeks after rumours surfaced in Monaco claiming that Vettel was seriously considering retiring.

The German denied it back then, and denied it again at the Paul Ricard circuit.

“I do not want to be anywhere else, so I have not thought about it,” he told The Express.

“We would like to be in a different position now, but it is up to us to close the gap to Mercedes.

“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about other things.”

As for his chances of winning the World title, those suffered a huge blow in France when Lewis Hamilton won the race while Vettel was only fifth.

He is 76 points behind in the standings.

“Maybe I’m not smart enough but I don’t think much about these things,” Vettel said.

“Honestly I don’t see so many differences compared to the last years.

“We are better than in 2015 and 2016, and while it is true that last year at this point we were more competitive, this is what we have.

“We can’t stop to think how we were doing ten races ago, we have to understand what we should do better now.

“So I love racing and nothing changes, in fact I enjoyed Paul Ricard a lot even though I would have liked something more than fifth.”

Follow us on Twitter @Planet_F1 and like our Facebook page.