The Ferrari driver understands that he did not manage to perform at the maximum in the 2018 season, but he knows how to fix the situation in 2019. After ten stages, Sebastian Vettel led the individual championship, but after the summer break, he won only one race out of nine and gave the title to Lewis Hamilton. Vettel, who last became champion back in 2013 when he played for Red Bull, could not avoid mistakes, such as a retirement in Germany, when 25 points for a win turned to zero, collisions with rivals' cars in Italy, Japan and in the United States, as a result of which he rolled back to the end of the peloton.
Vettel said: “I know how quickly things can change for the worse, as it happened in 2018. I need to think about some points. But there is also something else that went wrong, in which case I don't need to think about it and over complicate things. I know exactly what I need to do. Looking back, I can say that I did not always perform at the maximum. Evaluating my performances, I think that at some stages I had a chance to perform better."
In total, Vettel won five races this season, and his rival Lewis Hamilton eleven. However, he lost the championship not only because of his mistakes.
Ferrari has six wins this season, of which the team has won four in the first ten races. In the future, the engineers took the wrong direction for the development of the car, and Mercedes took the lead.
Vettel said: “We took a step back at the end of the season when we abandoned the failed updates, and that brought us back to the competition. I think we figured out where we went wrong. All in all it was a tough season. But we have a strong team. She has potential. However, the situation was influenced by other factors that occurred within the team.
Of course, the death of Sergio Marchionne, our chairman, had an impact. It was not easy to get through.
In the next season, we have to pay attention to every detail and make sure we get even stronger."
Statistically, the 2018 season was the best for Ferrari since 2008. So, Kimi Raikkonen, after a long break, climbed to the top of the podium, winning the US Grand Prix.
At the same time, according to Vettel, it is important not to overlook the positive aspects.
He said: “We had races, when we squeezed everything out of the car, when I felt that I gave my best. I was pleased with such performances. Now we need to calm down a little. We have time to analyze everything.
I don't think we need to turn everything upside down. But I can definitely reconfigure and become even stronger."
