Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Vettel backs Renault amid Red Bull woes

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Sebastian Vettel hopes Renault stays in F1 and says its success with Red Bull "gets forgotten very quickly".

Renault is set to split from Red Bull as it looks to take over the Lotus team and return to being a full constructor in F1. Vettel - now at Ferrari - won all four of his world championships driving for Red Bull, enjoying huge success using Renault engines, and is unhappy with how quickly those titles have been forgotten.

"It’s sad to hear, because it was part of the majority of the partnership," Vettel said. "We had very successful years, which unfortunately now gets forgotten very quickly.

"Renault has done a fantastic job in the past, supplying us with a strong engine, supplying us with the latest technique which was required to be competitive when we had the era of blown exhausts. We had one of the best ones, the most advanced, so there’s a lot of things now which people tend to forget. But I hope they stay in the sport."

Looking ahead to this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix with his current team, Vettel is hopeful of a strong weekend but puts little emphasis on his victory in Malaysia earlier this season.

"It’s a very difficult comparison, Malaysia and here. Here the sun goes down and we race at night, which makes a big difference if you look at asphalt temperatures etcetera, we use different compounds as well. I don’t think it’s a fair comparison.

"Looking at this year so far, when it’s been a bit hotter we have been a bit more competitive so maybe that’s a good thing. I think this circuit is unique in many ways so it’s all about feeling the car, having the confidence, which I think makes the biggest difference round here – when the driver is confident."

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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.