Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Vettel pulls out of Mercedes debrief

Sebastian Vettel says he will not be attending the Mercedes debrief on Friday because he doesn't want to be involved in a PR stunt.

Nico Rosberg invited Vettel to the Mercedes debrief following an exchange at the Malaysian Grand Prix, with the invitation being extended over social media. However, Vettel believes it's simply an attempt for Mercedes to gain some positive coverage after he mocked Rosberg and says he won't be attending as a result.

“I think when I was joking with Nico in the press conference the deal was the invite was for all the paddock," Vettel said. "Now it seems the invite has shrunk to just me. Initially I think it was called off by Niki [Lauda] and Toto [Wolff], now they’ve told [Rosberg] yes so I think they are using it now as a bit more of a PR thing rather than a proper invite, so the answer is no.”

Asked if the decision not to attend was made by him or Ferrari, Vettel said it was never a serious consideration for him in the first place.

“It wasn’t really discussed to be honest. Initially it was called off and then I think they tried to use it as ‘Ah yeah, we are so friendly and open to everyone’. Even if I went there, do you think they would really open up?

"That means I won’t go, because even if I go it’s all staged.”

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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.