Sebastian Vettel avoided giving a direct answer to reporters when quizzed about his future at Ferrari, when his contract runs out in 2017, in the aftermath of recent comments by team boss Maurizio Arrivabene stating that the German would have to earn his seat with the Scuderia beyond next year.
Vettel said that the team had other priorities, “I think we are all fairly busy at this time to focus on the four races that we have left and focus in particular to prepare for next year.”
“I think honestly that’s where the main focus lies. I don’t think it’s that important to look into details, my contract is obviously all fine for next year.”
“With a lot of things happening back in the factory, back in Maranello, I know that we are very, very busy — that’s also where I want the focus to be.”
The Italian team has not won a race so far this season. They are way off the pace setting Mercedes and of late Red Bull appear to have the edge over the Reds.
However Vettel, a four times world champion, is not losing hope, “I think there’s always a chance [of victory]. I think obviously in Japan we did some progress so that was positive. It could have been a bit better in Japan but it wasn’t, so we’re ready for this race. The most important step is that we fight, that we give everything we have.”
“I think [Japan was] a step forward. Both Kimi and myself liked it straight away. I think it gave us quite good performance in Japan. Japan usually is quite a good test for the overall performance of the car.”
“Here you can argue it’s similar in some ways [to Japan], the first sector has a lot of fast corners as well, the last sector is a little bit slower, but overall I think it gave us a good indication for this year.
“There’s always somethings that you learn – next year the rules are changing quite a lot but still every but you understand about the car and how it works helps you for the future,” added Vettel who lies sixth in the 2016 Formula 1 world championship standings.