SPIELBERG, Austria -- Sebastian Vettel has laughed off the suggestion that his recent mistakes could cost him the title, saying they have simply been the result of racing hard.
Vettel locked up while going for the lead in the final laps of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, giving him tyre damage and dropping him back down the order in a race eventually won by championship title rival Lewis Hamilton. Last week in France Vettel hit Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas at Turn 1, relegating him down the order and costing him more points to Hamilton, who claimed victory from pole position.
Hamilton's win in France saw him move back into the lead of the championship by a single point. When asked if he thinks he's made too many errors to win another title in 2018, Vettel laughed and replied: "I find this rather funny. It's racing. "There are some errors you shouldn't do, some errors that happen -- it depends on the type of error. I've had a lot of races; it happens, unfortunately, at times. I try to minimise it, but I'm not worried.
"I don't think there is something fundamentally wrong. I think we know what we are doing -- I hope I know what I'm doing most of the time, so I should be fine."
However, given the tight nature of this year's championship fight between Mercedes and Ferrari, Vettel agrees making fewer mistakes than Hamilton over 21 races is key to claiming a fifth F1 crown.
"Of course. Mistakes are not part of the plan, whatever plan you have. They're never part of the plan for anybody. It's a long way to go, and it's normal some things happen along the way.
"Obviously you are trying to push the limits. It didn't cross my mind when I was in Baku to just stay behind, surrender, and maybe wave another person past, just to collect some points. That's not how I define racing. I tried to go for the gap, I went for it, it was there, and I didn't make it. It didn't work.
"Sometimes it works out, and it's great; sometimes it doesn't. At the end of the year you try to get everything right, and not to get everything wrong. That's natural."