Sebastian Vettel has no major holiday plans this winter but is looking forward to Ferrari’s Christmas party where he’ll be celebrating a promising first season with the Italian team.
The four-time world champion, who made the switch from Red Bull to Ferrari end of last year, believes his team made “miraculous” progress throughout the 2015 season and has complete faith they can catch up with Mercedes in the future.
Ferrari finished second in the constructors’ championship, 275 points behind Mercedes, while Vettel claimed third in the drivers’ standings, 103 points adrift of first-placed Lewis Hamilton.
Despite the big gap between Ferrari and their German rivals, Vettel is proud of what he’s accomplished with the Prancing Horse this year.
“Of course it’s always the most difficult one to equalise or go in front,” Vettel said on Sunday of the challenge of beating Mercedes.
“I just had one of our guys coming in, he was one of the first guys I met last year at the test, where I didn’t drive but I got to know the team for the first time and if I think back from that time to where we are now, it’s a miracle.
“It’s a miracle where we started off in the winter, setting fastest times but knowing that in Australia obviously getting the confirmation that we’re a long way behind.
“Then I haven’t seen any other team making that much progress throughout the season.
“So obviously we had upgrades on our engine, we upgraded our car and naturally that brought us closer.
“Not close enough yet to really fight and put them under pressure but I have 100 per cent belief that they are beatable, especially when you put pressure on them.
“I think our strategy has to be to focus on ourselves like we did the whole season, work on ourselves.”
Vettel is the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race this season, triumphing in Malaysia, Hungary and Singapore and making 10 more podiums. He admits that while finishing in the top-three is nice, he did not enjoy being 30 or 40 seconds behind Mercedes in some of the races in 2015.
The German finished a respectable fourth in Abu Dhabi, having fought his way through the grid after starting in 16th due to a calculation mistake from his team in qualifying. The 28-year-old currently has 79 podium appearances to his name, one behind his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who recorded his 80th – tying the legendary Ayrton Senna – by taking third at Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday.
Asked if surpassing Senna and Raikkonen’s tally is something he looks forward to doing next year, Vettel said: “I have a little bit more time if you look at my date of birth. I think Senna is a great champion and Kimi is a great champion.
“Obviously Senna is a special champion because unfortunately he’s not around anymore, he will always be remembered in a very strong way. I feel very lucky that I have the opportunity to race with great teams and great cars to finish on the podium to match some of these great drivers. Right now it’s maybe not that important but when I’m a little bit older then maybe it’s a nice thing.”
With all the teams already kicking off their celebrations last night in the paddock, you’d expect most of the drivers to be thinking about their vacation plans but Vettel seems keen to keep up the good work he’s been doing with Ferrari and admits he has no lavish holiday arrangements this offseason.
“No holidays. A little bit but for now I think we all look forward to say cheers for the great season that we had. Enjoy that moment,” said Vettel. “On Tuesday we have a very important test for next year already (tyre test at Yas Marina Circuit).
“And then looking forward to the Christmas party with the team, it will be my first time to join that. And then to be honest the break isn’t that long.
“I think we already have a test in January, again for tyres, so I think with more and more years in F1, somehow the winter seems to get shorter and shorter. I’m just looking forward to spend the time at home and not travel for a change. No big exciting plans, I’m sorry. But I’m quite happy with my boring plans.”
