Much has been written about how Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari shot themselves in the foot at their home Italian Grand Prix, the German realises that ‘help’ from his hitherto submissive teammate may be something of the past.
Speaking after the Monza weekend where pundits questioned why Vettel was not given a tow by Raikkonen during the crucial final lap of Q3 which handed the veteran Finn pole by q tenth of a second over his teammate.
Then, a day later during the race, Raikkonen locked up in a huge cloud of tyre smoke, as he stubbornly fended off Vetttel’s charge into Turn 1 on the opening lap Monza, and then the German got it all wrong a couple of corners later.
Reflecting on the weekend Vettel told Ziggo Sport, “I’m not happy how Ferrari managed things on Saturday. I should’ve started the race from pole position. It’s clear for me, I have to race three cars including that of my team-mate.”
Asked what had happened, considering that in the past Ferrari have never been to use Raikkonen (or any number two driver) to advantage Vettel.
Asked what went wrong on at Monza, Vettel replied, “I don’t know. Obviously, I understand the questions but for me it’s pretty clear, I’m happy to fight three cars for wins, I’m happy to actually fight 19 cars.”
“I’ve never been in a different position to that. Its fine, I don’t expect anything else. I was trying to use my chances in the first corner, a little bit in the second chicane, but it didn’t work.”
“Then it was a bit unfortunate with how things turned out. Everybody’s free to have whatever approach they want. For us, it’s pretty clear and straightforward,” added Vettel who now trails championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 30 points with seven rounds remaining in the championship.