Vettel also does not believe Red Bull has proved to be the fastest car despite
his string of wins.
“I think in the second stint on hard tyres [in India], McLaren and
Ferrari were arguably a little bit quicker than us. But then I could benefit
from the gap I had after the first stint.
“I think Jenson [Button] put the fastest lap in at the end of the race in
India, 1.5sec quicker than he did before. I don’t know what he was doing
before that, but it shows they were quite quick.”
The German put his dominant pace three weeks ago in Japan down to being
particularly in tune with Red Bull’s set-up that weekend.
“In Japan,” he said, “I was really happy with the car and the
balance in the race was just fantastic. That’s what then allows you to put a
really strong lap in.”
Red Bull could secure the constructors’ championship in Abu Dhabi this weekend
– something Vettel said he was unaware of until informed by Australian
team-mate Mark Webber.
“We were on the same plane and Mark said it would be quite bad for the
constructors’ if this plane went down…” Vettel joked.
“Obviously it would be very special for us to win the championship here,
but in order to do so we have to have a strong weekend and score more points
than the others.”