Sebastian Vettel says his first-lap exit at the Singapore Grand Prix “doesn’t change anything” in how he tackles the remaining six events of 2017.
Vettel headed the standings from the start of the year through to the Italian Grand Prix earlier this month, when Lewis Hamilton pulled three points clear with victory.
Vettel claimed pole in Singapore, but was forced to retire after just a few corners, having clashed with Ferrari team-mate Kimi Räikkönen and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen off the line.
Hamilton went on to record victory, and as a result pulled 28 points clear of Vettel in the standings, but the Ferrari driver insists he will not change his approach in the title battle.
“If you could choose you want always be ahead, now we’re a little bit behind,” he said.
“But overall it doesn’t change anything for how we tackle the last six races.
“I think there are still a lot of races left. We have a strong car. I’m not too fussed about amount of points.
“Obviously it’s never good to be behind, we’d like to be in front, but we’re not, so we’ve got to take it from there.”
On the Singapore collision, Vettel said: “I think it would have been more difficult if I had lost the car somewhere in the race, then it’s obviously different.
“With a collision at the start like that, I think we all three… after the race, we had to face the stewards. What can you do?
“The lights went off, we did our start, everyone was trying to do his start, and with the way it happened it ended up really bad for all of us. There’s not much you can do. I think it’s part of racing.
“It’s not the first time I’m in the situation like this and probably will not be the last time – not hoping for it to happen again!
“There’s not much point trying to look again and again. Your time and energy is more well spent looking forward.”
