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Vettel rules himself out of Mercedes running

Sebastian Vettel says the fact he has a contract with Ferrari for next season makes it "clear" he is not in the running for the vacant Mercedes seat.

Nico Rosberg stunned Mercedes last week by informing the team he was retiring from F1 with immediate effect following his world championship win in Abu Dhabi. With one of the most coveted seats on the grid now available and most drivers under contract, Vettel was quick to rule himself out of the running to replace his fellow German.

“I think it’s not a big secret that both myself and Kimi [Raikkonen] have a contract for next year – so it should be clear,” Vettel said at the Ferrari World Finals event at Daytona.

And Vettel says he is not focusing on what Mercedes does over the winter, with all of his attention being directed to Ferrari as it looks to bounce back from a winless 2016.

“I don’t know what’s their plan but for us we look after ourselves for next year, there’s a lot of things changing so we’re quite busy ourselves. We’re very positive for next year.

“I think the team is getting stronger, that is what we’ve felt in the last couple of months at the track and in the factory. We should be able to come out with a better package.”

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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.