Grand Prix World Champion Sebastian Vettel reflects on his 2010 season
As the youngest ever Grand Prix World champion, and with only three full seasons under his belt, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel has had an impressive career. After taking home the 2010 Championship title, Vettel had time for a short rest in Salzburg, Austria.
He is again in Abu Dhabi for the Perelli tyre test that kicked off on Friday.
In an interview with the Formula 1 official website, Vettel said that he plans to take some time off in order to celebrate, meet with his family and see his friends. After that he will divert his energies towards defending his World Championship title in
2011.
Reflecting on his contentious relationship with his competitor and team mate Mark Webber, he told the site that they spoke after the race, and that although they may not have a solid friendship they have agreed to work together in a spirit of mutual respect.
“There have been some things that annoyed me [about Webber] over the course of the year and vice versa.”
Noting that he is proud of his achievements, Vettel said that he does not see his success the way his competitors do, and acknowledged that for some, seeing someone so young achieve his level of success might be difficult. “I know that I’m not the oldest
driver on the grid. Whether things become harder the older you get, I cannot know that now,” he said.
Vettel told the site that the win was an emotional moment for him, especially when he looked at it from the perspective of having been one of the little guys when his father and him were in karting together. "That is the moment when pictures of the past
start to cross your mind and you dearly hope that nobody is going to wake you up from your dream,” he said of when he crossed the finish line at Yas Marina.
When asked what he considered to be his best character trait, Vettel affirmed that his best qualities are his ability to keep on trying no matter what, and that he never gives up once he has set a goal for himself. "I have led this championship exactly once,
at the end, which is what really counted. I remember that a certain James Hunt did it in the same style in 1976.”
He said that without the support of his team-mates, the journey would have been a lot more difficult and he thanked them for their unwavering support and belief in him.
Vettel agreed that it was in Monza that things started to look better for him, and admitted to making some mistakes in Spa when he made an unsuccessful attempt at passing another car. Vettel drew criticism from colleagues in the sport, as well as from the
press for that gaff. “Monza was next and that persistence was rewarded with P4. It was a very special race in terms of my attitude.”
Vettel is perhaps one of the only Formula 1 enthusiasts not to have watched the Abu Dhabi race at Yas Marina on television. He told F1 reporters that he saw that last 15 laps on Sunday in the company of his engineers.
Vettel made clear his conviction that the race was won as a result of hard work and sacrifice on the part of himself, his engineers and his team mates. “In the end we seized our chance and the others didn’t. It’s that simple.”
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