Sebastian Vettel says he has no regrets about the strategy Red Bull employed in Canada, despite losing out at the end of the race.
Vettel and Fernando Alonso both stayed out when Lewis Hamilton pitted, only to suffer severe tyre degradation. Vettel eventually chose to stop after all, and ultimately salvaged fourth, so in the end he dropped only one position.
“We found ourselves in third place,” said the German of the latter stages ofof the race. “I think initially I could have gone a little bit faster, but then we were more or less at the same pace, so I tried to stabilise and try to make the one-stop work, which looked quite promising, let’s say 15 laps to the end. But as it turned out it was the wrong strategy, and the same for Fernando really.
“Obviously when you are in the race you don’t know what will be the final outcome. At the time Lewis decided to box when he was in the lead I think Fernando and myself were a little bit surprised because the tyres seemed to hold up fairly well, but then all of a sudden they started to go off in the end.
“Obviously we were hoping to get the place back against Lewis, but it was pretty obvious then there was no way to hold him. In the end we decided to box again, we lost a podium but I think we made the right decision, because at the time we went for the stop we were three or four seconds behind Fernando, and we finished ahead. I think you saw how much he was struggling, he had no more traction. It was very similar when I decided to pit three or four laps before it.”
Vettel insisted that despite turning pole into fourth, it was a good weekend for himself and the team.
“As I said now it’s easy to know everything, but it’s nevertheless a very good weekend for us. Very consistent, and if we keep going in that direction then hopefully we can make another step forward for Valencia.
“It’s a different track. We’ll see. We have two weeks now, maybe we are allowed to open the holes in the floor again! I don’t know. Obviously the whole team back in Milton Keynes is pushing very hard. I think we’ve been close again, and as I said in the end it was good points, but surely at some stage it looked more promising for a podium.
“It’s always easy to step out of the car and say here and there we should have done this and that. It’s up to us to learn a lesson, and then make a step forward.”
Adam Cooper F1 