Vettel wants Ferrari to harness Italy 'superpower'

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Sebastian Vettel wants Ferrari to make more use of the "superpower" it has available to it in the form of such passionate support in Italy.

Ferrari's enjoys huge backing from the Italian public, with the Tifosi creating an iconic atmosphere during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza each year. Reflecting on the best moments of the past season, Vettel says his third place in Monza was a highlight and wants Ferrari to harness the support in any way it can in future.

"The top moment for me was certainly the podium in Monza, by far it is always something very special and I have been lucky enough to be on the podium there a few times and to be on the podium there with Ferrari in something unique," Vettel said.

"Also the fact this year was the first time to come back and compare and also see it was a difficult season for us where we got a lot of criticisms, sometimes right and sometimes wrong, but to see that the Tifosi coming to support us and believing us was a great boost and something we’ll remember many, many times that we are not alone.

"The majority of the nation of Italy behind us is something I would describe as our superpower and we want to use it more in the future."

Acknowledging some of 2016's low points, Vettel highlights a specific missed opportunity when he failed to even start the second race of the year.

"We also had a couple of moments that were not so glorious. Blowing up the tyre in Austria on the main straight when we were looking on for a podium was not great. Also Bahrain was the worst as we didn’t make the start of the race and I think we were going to be competitive that day but never found out so that was a low point when you can’t even start the race."

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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.