Andretti wants to see Vettel win Ferrari title

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1978 Formula One World Champion Mario Andretti wants to see Sebastian Vettel be successful with Ferrari.

Vettel won four consecutive championships with Red Bull from 2010-13 but saw that run end with the introduction of the new power unit regulations in 2014. A year later he joined Ferrari and duly won three races in his first season with the team but struggled this year, finishing fourth in the drivers' championship but failing to win a race.

Andretti - who raced for Ferrari on 12 occasions - says it would be a good story for F1 if Vettel brought a championship to Maranello having made it clear it is his lifelong dream to do so.

“I would love to see Vettel win a championship with Ferrari because I think he really wants to be there,” Andretti told ESPN. “He’s there because it has been his dream, I think Michael [Schumacher] was his hero.

“He’s a bit frustrated obviously because things are the way they are at the moment. I think he gets on very well with Kimi, which is important as a team. But he’s showing his frustration a bit, you can tell, because he just feels that it could be better.

“He belongs there and I think pretty much everyone would like to see him be successful with Ferrari. I’m one of those, I’m a fan of his in every way. He expressed that to me [that he wants to win with Ferrari] a long time ago when he was first coming into the ranks of Formula One that that’s what he’d like to be and I think he’s where he wants to be.”

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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.