F1 News, Reports and Race Results

'You don't win the championship by luck' - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel has hit back at those questioning whether Nico Rosberg deserved to win this year's drivers' title, saying "you don't win the championship by luck".

Rosberg secured the title courtesy of four consecutive second places as team-mate Lewis Hamilton won the final four races of the season. Hamilton ended the year with ten wins to Rosberg's nine, but retired from the lead of the Malaysian Grand Prix when set to take a comfortable victory.

While Toto Wolff admits Malaysia cost Hamilton the championship, Vettel believes focusing on Hamilton's reliability issues overlooks the job done by Rosberg throughout 2016.

"I think, in my point of view, you don’t win the Championship by luck," Vettel said following Sunday's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. "Nico won the Championship. He’s a deserved champion.

"You collect a lot of points throughout the season, sometimes you might have, yeah, fortunate situations, unfortunate situations with your car but I think there’s been other situations in the past with other drivers, that’s the way it goes.

"Sometimes you have better years in this regard, sometimes worse years but I think today is Nico’s day and it’s a sign of respect and greatness to give him that. I think we owe it to him, he’s a deserved champion."

Vettel also suggested he had been wary of making a risky move on Rosberg when trying to pass the two Mercedes drivers to take victory, because he was unsure of Hamilton's tactics.

"My interest as soon as I passed Max was to win the race – but bearing in mind obviously that they are fighting for the Championship and… I mean we could all feel and see what was going on. Lewis was trying to back Nico up into the rest of the pack…"

Technical analysis - Abu Dhabi

Scene at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Quotes of the week

DRIVER RATINGS: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

OPINION: A worthy champion

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.

Recent Posts

Optimistic Zhou discussing ‘a number of options’ to stay in F1

Departing Suber driver Zhou Guanyu remains optimistic about his F1 prospects and is actively exploring…

8 mins ago

The driver Enzo Ferrari labeled 'a really great one'

Peter Collins was born on this day in 1931. A handsome young man from Kidderminster,…

57 mins ago

Herbert hits back at Jos Verstappen: ‘I’ll criticize anyone I want’

In an escalating war of words between former F1 drivers, FIA steward Johnny Herbert has…

2 hours ago

Bottas bids farewell to Sauber, could reunite with Mercedes

Valtteri Bottas's time at Sauber is coming to an end. After three seasons with the…

3 hours ago

Bortoleto’s F1 journey begins: Sauber signs top prospect for 2025

As expected, Sauber has made a bold move for the future, signing Gabriel Bortoleto to…

4 hours ago

Mercedes denies Hamilton won’t complete 2024 F1 season

A sudden bout of intrigue, sparked by a puzzling radio message delivered by Lewis Hamilton…

5 hours ago