_163_cnk_kc.jpg)
Question: Sebastian, you compared yourself to Ayrton Senna here in 1991, nursing a gearbox problem for a lot of the race. Describe the struggle you had today to get to the chequered flag.
Sebastian Vettel: The difference is he won! Yeah, it was a real shame because I had a very good start and then a good feeling. I was able to pull a gap straight away at the beginning of the race but very early got the call that we have to manage a gearbox problem. And yeah, I had to turn down the engine, short-shift and it was just getting worse throughout the race so I ended up using higher gears pretty much everywhere and that’s why the comparison came into my head. Nevertheless, Mark drove a fantastic race, he deserved to win. I don’t really like calling this bad luck. Surely, if something like this happens it’s not in your hands. Still, I tried to do my best: tried to stay as close as I can; tried to keep the gap to Fernando for most of the race and then Jenson at the end. I think we had a pretty amazing season and I think it would be over the top being upset now. We take this second place and a one-two finish for the team, which is great and… yeah, it has been a phenomenal year and a very strong finish as well so now I think we are all ready for the winter and looking forward to the break to recharge our batteries and come back as strong as this year, hopefully, at the beginning of the season next year.
Question: Sebastian, sum up your feeling on what’s been a pretty historic and dominant season for you.
Sebastian Vettel: It’s difficult to sum up. I think it was a great end of the season to finish with both cars on the podium, a one-two. Surely I would have loved to have finished the race in a normal way today but nevertheless I think we had a great, great season. Pretty incredible. Going into the season we thought we have a competitive car, maybe we can win some races but it has been phenomenal. The team has been faultless most of the time, so they’ve raised their level massively compared to the last two years. We seem to enjoy what we do. It’s nice every weekend to come into the garage, see the boys with a smile on their faces, being happy with what they do. At the end of the day I don’t think it really matters if you, I don’t know, race Formula One cars, touring cars, sports or business, as long as you enjoy. I think one thing about us: you walk into the garage, I think even as a guest, and you get that feeling that we really love what we do. We are passionate and it doesn’t matter if we have to work until late or work harder than others. We are ready to take that because we know how sweet it can taste at the end of the race, at the end of a grand prix or the end of the season. I’m really grateful to all the guys here on the track but more so even to the guys in the factory. All year long pushing to keep the car at the level that it is. McLaren were pushing massively and I think at the end we were pretty even. I don’t think that one car really had the edge. Sometimes here, sometimes there, but all in all it was much tighter than probably it looked. Looking at the Championship score obviously it wasn’t that tight but that shows how good we work on the operational side. More or less getting 100 per cent out of us as a package all the time. We can be really proud of that. I’m very proud to be part of that. This will be a year that we will look back to and always be very proud of.
Click Here to Read More
Formula 1: Mark Webber Storms to First Victory of 2011 at Brazilian Grand Prix
Formula 1: Brazilian Grand Prix - Race Results
Question: When exactly did the problem occur, Sebastian. Was it lap 13 when you started to lose time to Mark? Was it before the stop or after?
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, it was already at the end of the first stint. It was during the first stint, at some stage, that I got the message ‘we have a gearbox issue’. It sounded pretty strong, pretty severe, so I turned down the engine and then immediately started to short shift and it just kept getting worse. I got through the first pit stop and obviously gained a little bit on Mark, because I came in a lap earlier but then at some stage I realised that it was still pretty early in the race, our main priority is to finish the race and Mark would be catching up and the most important thing would be to help the team to win the race. I tried to be very clear on the radio that I cannot keep first position with the pace that we were going or whatever they asked me to do, what was required to manage the gearbox and then I told them ‘OK, but obviously advise Mark’ or ‘tell Mark that I would let him through’, to give him the chance to keep pushing, don’t lose any time getting past me because at that stage I didn’t know whether I would see the chequered flag or not. So I’m really happy to be here, but obviously it was a little bit of a shame. I then just kept losing more and more time towards the end, so I had to be more and more conservative. At some stage I said that ‘I feel like Senna in 1991 when he had to manage the gearbox problem around here’. Obviously it was totally different for him, he was Brazilian and he still managed to win the race. I was forced to push in areas where I was allowed to, in the corners, but as soon as I went on the straight, I obviously had to shift earlier. I don’t know if you have walked the track or have run the track, but getting out of the last corner is pretty steep so there was no chance to really… I tried to stay with Mark as well as I could, in case the problem solved itself and we could go again, but in the end I was just trying to keep the gap. When I heard that Jenson was going on P2 I wasn’t very happy because I’ve heard that a couple of times, when he was coming through at the end of the race, but this time we had enough pace in hand to keep him behind and enough of a gap, so that was fine, but all in all, as I said earlier, I’m very happy. It would be wrong to complain today, it’s an amazing result for the team to finish first and second. Mark drove a very good race and had very strong pace, so I’m not sitting here and saying if… if… if this and that, then I would have won. The fact is that he won the race, he deserved to. As I said, we’ve had an incredible year, the team, myself, so I’m not really wanting to complain.
Question: We did see the fairly rare sight of you off the circuit as well.
Sebastian Vettel: Yeah, I was a bit surprised when I got onto the primes and warm-up was a bit poor and then I think I just got caught out with the traffic ahead and lost too much at the front with a little bit of warm-up. It’s quite tricky, the exit kerb of turn four, because it’s off-camber and then it pulls you to the exit or off-track and then I said ‘OK, there’s no point’ so I tried to open, give the car enough space and come back easy on the circuit before I tried to do something stupid, so that was that.
Question: Seb, at what time did you think you might take all risks to catch Mark or did you prefer to save second place?
Sebastian Vettel: It’s never nice to finish second when you know you have a car or a package good enough to fight for victory. But yeah, very early in the race I got the message and then, as I said, the main priority was to make sure that at least if I went out, Mark could carry on and win the race. I didn’t want to hold him up, so I gave way and after that, more and more, I was forced to slow down and in the end, I was going round and not using second gear, which around here, in the slow speed corners, is not a help. Sure, I lost time, but in the end I don’t want to sit here complaining. As the team told me and as I understood, the most important thing was to finish the race and it’s great to be on the podium here. I think the people here at Interlagos are very passionate about racing, the drivers’ parade is very nice. When we stand on the truck and go around the lap, there are so many people cheering for what we do. They get excited for what we do a little bit later on on the same day. It’s great to be part of that and then going into the track, you never know what’s going to happen, so if you see the chequered flag and then stand on the podium, get a trophy, it’s not a bad day.
Question: We saw quite a high number of gearbox problems in the course of the race. I was wondering, do you guys think that’s mechanical fatigue at the end of the year or the particular challenges of Interlagos?
Sebastian Vettel: I’m not sure. My gearbox was brand new, so it was the first race. Maybe we should have kept the old one, I don’t know. I think yes, the circuit is pretty rough but on the other hand there are places where it’s way worse. Street circuits where you use low gears all the time, you do very short ratios in the car so you have a lot of changing gear… Fatigue would be a bit odd after only one race, not even that
| 
|