Vettel not worried about missing Australian Formula One win

Three-time defending Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel could only manage to finish third at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday from the pole, but the Red Bull Racing driver says he's not disheartened by losing out to tire degradation. He was encouraged by the overall speed of the car. “I think the pace was there, the naked pace,” said Vettel. “Qualifying was pretty good for us. I think we had quite a good run, and then also the first two laps of the race were pretty good, and also the first two laps on each set of tires felt pretty good -- but yeah, obviously after that we couldn't keep it up.

OneShift Editorial Team

19 Mar 2013

“And surely the times set in the front, from Fernando [Alonso], but Kimi [Raikkonen] especially, were quite impressive considering the amount of laps on the tires. So, we couldn't do that and that's why, I think we lost out a little bit today. But, as I said, it's a very tough, very long Grand Prix and very nice to be on the podium at the end. We have quite a good record here so I'm happy that we had another podium finish today.

“I'm not worried. I have to admit sometimes that other people are faster. I think we can be very happy today. We had a great qualifying session this morning and this afternoon unfortunately didn't quite work the way we would have liked but it's a long season, a long way ahead of us, so good points to start. Surely we wanted a little bit more, but there's no reason to be disappointed.”

Next stop for the series is Malaysia.

“I think it's a completely different place,” Vettel said. “I think last year we cannot take as a reference because we had different issues with the car. I think starting with the season this year the car seems much more balance and I'm much happier, in a much happier place. So, looking forward to next week.

“It will be a lot hotter; naturally there is a risk of rain, thunderstorms. We've got rain tires and intermediates, so we should be fine but in terms of approach there's not too much difference. I don't think you can take this race as a reference because the circuit is too different. And as I said, the conditions will be different plus the tires we use are different again.”

Credits: Oneshift News Team