Sebastian Vettel is willing to accept the criticism he has faced over his recent run of mistakes and admits they are likely to be at the back of mind next time he goes wheel to wheel with another car.
Vettel has spun to the back of the field at the start of the last two races and was also involved in first lap collisions at the French and Italian Grands Prix earlier this year. Combined with crashing out of the lead of the German Grand Prix in July, Vettel has dropped a significant amount out points to Lewis Hamilton over the course of the season and is likely to be mathematically ruled out of this year's championship at Sunday's Mexican Grand Prix.
Vettel says he is willing to accept the criticism that has been levelled at him for his mistakes this year, but also pointed out that the incidents always feel different from inside the car.
"It [the criticism] is fair," he said. "I spun. If you are the one spinning then something didn't go right, so I think it is fair.
"Obviously inside the car things look a little bit different, then you look from 13 different angles and in slow-motion and by that time even the last person in the paddock might have an opinion, so it is obviously different. But it might differ...every opinion might differ.
"The main thing is that fundamentally I didn't try to do anything silly or stupid, I wasn't hard-headed or trying to do something that would never work. Obviously now it has happened a couple of times, too much, so next time there will be a gap, I am sure I will go for a gap, but surely it is in the back of your head trying to keep the car facing the right direction."
Asked if there was a technical reason why he has spun three times this year while trying to pass a car on the inside, Vettel said: "Obviously you want to have the inside to the corner, that doesn't change. But I don't know.
"The closer you are to another car you lose some downforce, obviously the spins I had were all quite weird because there was not much I could have done. It is not like I had gone in too fast or would have spun on my own at that speed, not at all, so I guess there must be some sort of hole or something being on the inside of a car in that position.
"Obviously on all three occasions I wasn't clearly ahead, at best side-by-side, so maybe next time I try the outside!"