Chinese Grand Prix: Pre-Race Interview With Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel

Question: Sebastian, pole here for the last two years. You won in 2009. Back-to-back race wins, do you feel yourself that you’re on a major roll at the moment?

Sebastian Vettel: I don’t know. Obviously you feel good after the races we have so far, especially last weekend. We try to make this feeling last but we come here and we have to refocus. It is pretty much the same approach that we have had in every other race as well. It will be a tough weekend. We have seen the last two events here that the weather can play a very important role so we will see what happens.

Question: In Malaysia, Christian Horner said that the major focus was mainly on tyres. Is that going to continue?

Sebastian Vettel: I guess yes. I think it will be the same situation here. How the tyres behave we will find out probably tomorrow. Melbourne and Malaysia was quite different. It could be that we will have a similar situation here as in Malaysia, but we don’t know, we have to confirm. It is a different track again. Outside conditions are different, it is quite a bit cooler here, less humid, so as I said I guess tyres will be one of the most important. They always have been and this year with the new tyres we have and the amount of stops we have to face on Sunday they will be important and I guess we will find out a lot more tomorrow.

Question: How much do you see McLaren and Ferrari as rivals?

Sebastian Vettel: Pretty much and also Mercedes. We have had only two races this year and we have been very fortunate to run at the front. McLaren was pushing very hard. They made a very strong impression already in Melbourne, also considering where they have been at the tests where it was difficult to read the true pace. Ferrari were very, very quick at the testing as well as Mercedes, especially at the end. We are just two races in and we have seen from last year how many things can change in only a couple of races. Some tracks maybe suit your car more than others so we will have to see. In the end we don’t care so much about the rest, we care about ourselves and we try to do the best job we can and hopefully that ensures we have a good chance to run at the front again.

Question: First question for Sebastian: you know you already have two pole positions here in China, but last year you were sixth in the race. How about this year? A third pole position and winner? Are you confident?

Sebastian Vettel: It’s always a long weekend. Obviously you work both Friday and Saturday to prepare the cars as much as you can and ideally on Saturday afternoon you get the best position on the grid that you can get for the race. So the target, for sure, is to have a good qualifying and then ultimately have a good race because that’s where you can score points. So looking back at last year’s race, obviously we were not strong enough, we were struggling a little bit with the conditions but still got some points. For this year, every year is different, so we will see what we can do – but surely, as I tried to say earlier, we will try to push as hard as we can and try to get the maximum out of the car one more time, and ideally have a good result. Of course, I wouldn’t mind if everything goes well and we can get another pole position or another victory.

Question: Do you know the weather forecast? It says there will be rain.

Sebastian Vettel: OK, you are local so you probably know better than us. We will see. We also have some forecasts and yeah, there’s also some rain. We will see when and how much. That’s always the same question.

Question: Do you think yourself unstoppable this year?

Sebastian Vettel: We’ve obviously had two good races but we come here and we start again. That’s the name of the game at every event, every race so surely we try to keep it going. We saw at the last race that it’s getting very tight and you can take nothing for granted. Of course, the day will come when we might finish second, fifth, tenth, whatsoever but that’s life. That’s Formula One.

Question: Sebastian, you said after the Malaysia race that the fact that Nick Heidfeld came up to second after the start was a good thing for you because he held back the others and helped you to get a small gap. Do you think that without him, Lewis could have threatened you a lot?

Sebastian Vettel: As I said in Malaysia, obviously Nick had a phenomenal start. Both Renaults – both Lotus Renaults - had a good start and of course it was a comfortable situation for me because I think Lewis would probably have had a bit stronger pace than Nick at the time but nevertheless, I think Nick had a strong pace throughout the whole race, otherwise you are not able to finish on the podium. It was not a bad race at all for them but as I said, it was a bit of a luxury situation because I could pull away and didn’t have that much pressure from behind at that stage, but for all the other stints, I don’t think we had Nick behind us, we had Lewis or Jenson behind us and we were able to react. Of course it was important but if, if, if… I cannot answer these kind of questions.

Question: We as journalists talked a lot about rubber bullets and marbles over the last few days. Do you think it’s a very important issue that you are put in danger or is it something that doesn’t really mean anything?

Sebastian Vettel: The amount of marbles or pick-up we have next to the racing line is more than what we are used to simply because we are on different tyres. We have seen this throughout testing and now in the first couple of races we have double the amount of cars on the track in the race. There are a lot of marbles but I think Pirelli is aware of that and should it become a problem I think they can get on top of it and change it. There’s nothing we have to fear. I think the amount you can see on television, as well, at the beginning compared to the end, I think the amount of marbles and pick-up is huge but as I said, I don’t think we have anything to fear.

Question: Seb, what are your plans for KERS this weekend? Are Red Bull going to try and run it again tomorrow and get it working properly on this circuit, or are you happy that you’re fast enough to run without it?

Sebastian Vettel: No, I think I said many times that KERS is an advantage this year so to run KERS will actually help you if you’re looking for lap time and performance, because compared to two years ago, you obviously don’t have any flexibility or any advantage to get by moving the weight distribution and so on. Your hands are tied this year so it makes sense to run KERS and it’s our target obviously. We were not proud not to have it in Australia. We were, for the majority of the weekend, able to run it in Malaysia and within that short amount of time I think we made a big step. Obviously now we’ve only had a couple of days but the guys again have been pushing very hard and I’m confident we will have it in the car, that’s for sure and I’m confident that it will work all weekend this weekend. Yes, we will be using it tomorrow - and Saturday and Sunday, I hope.

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