Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Vettel learning from Raikkonen despite struggles

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Sebastian Vettel says he is learning from Kimi Raikkonen and recent results have masked how close the Ferrari team-mates are.

Raikkonen crashed out of the Austrian Grand Prix two weeks after a spin cost him a podium in Canada. While Vettel is now 48 points clear of his team-mate in the drivers' championship, the quadruple world champion says he is learning a lot from Raikkonen as he reiterated his desire to see the Finn remain at Ferrari.

"I am not responsible for picking who is driving alongside me," Vettel said. "I have a contract for next year, but I think I have said many times that I am very happy with Kimi. I have said since day one that he is very straight, becoming world champion in 2007 hasn’t changed him, so it is good for F1 to have him back. He is straightforward, there is no bullshit from him, that is the politics that I really enjoy.

"Seeing him as my team-mate it is the first time I get to see what he is doing on track. I know if you get the wrong results, that it might be quite obvious, but it is very close with each other. There are corners where he has the upper hand and corners where I have the upper hand, so it is a good challenge.

"There is a lot I can learn from him, there is a different approach to some things. We obviously have this season left, I don’t want the contract details for next year, but it would be nice to have him in the team for next year."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.