“Vettel is not winning the championship, he’s winning races and it doesn’t work like that. If you lose out in three or four opportunities like that, it’s 25 points thrown away every time and it’s becoming very difficult after that mentally.”
“I believe the stress you have as a driver is enormous. If you’re in the position to handle the stress and do the job and not go out, you’re winning. Because when you go out, it’s the worst possible scenario – we know that.”
Briatore no longer works in Formula 1, having been banned from the sport in 2009 after being the team boss in charge of the Renault team at the time of ‘Crashgate’; this was an intentional crash by Nelson Piquet Junior at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, done to bring out the Safety Car and ease Fernando Alonso into the lead – this was accomplished. While he has served his ban, he has not returned to F1.
Having been in charge of Renault during the 2005 campaign, where Fernando Alonso won the title against a quicker Raikkonen/McLaren challenge, Briatore said Vettel needs to learn more about how to bank points and sustain results as opposed to concentrating on solitary race victories:
‘You need to explain to him that the race is 53 laps, and not one lap. I remember we had the same experience with Fernando.”
‘When you want to win the championship finishing third place is already bingo. It’s important to stay on the track. Vettel’s accident in Monza made no sense, honestly. You know the car is better, you just brake and stay behind, finito. You have 50 more laps to recover it.”
“If you go out, you have zero laps to recover. Sure, with the car he has he could finish fourth because the car is better than the rest of the competition. But when you want to win the championship you have to be a master at that and do well and finish second and third also.”
“The target is to just get the points. You don’t need to win every race to win the championship. It’s not about the race wins, it’s about the points.”
“If you have a competitive car, you overtake somebody. If you are going to have an accident with the guy who has more points than you, the advantage goes to your competitor.”
