Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel says Formula 1 can be a “very cruel” sport as he attempts to salvage his season.
The 27-year-old German, who has won the last four titles, heads into his home race this weekend sixth in the championship and without a victory.
“It’s been a tough start, a rough season so far,” Vettel said.
“F1 can be fantastic, as I have experience of, but it can be very cruel in retiring from problems. You rely on your car. It is part of the game.”
Vettel, who was speaking in an interview to be broadcast on BBC One during the highlights of the German Grand Prix on Sunday, has failed to finish three of the nine races so far this season as Red Bull have struggled for pace compared to the dominant Mercedes team.
He is 95 points – nearly four clear victories – behind championship leader Nico Rosberg of Mercedes, and 28 points adrift of new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who has out-qualified Vettel five times since replacing fellow Australian Mark Webber.
Ricciardo also won the Canadian Grand Prix, where Vettel was third.
Vettel has struggled to come to terms with the new F1 cars following rule changes this season that have removed the technology on which Red Bull based a lot of their success – using exhaust gases for aerodynamic effect.
But he insists he is making progress in understanding how to drive the car.
“It hasn’t come our way yet, but I’m confident it will,” Vettel said. “I’m struggling to understand the car so we are testing a lot of things. Some work, some don’t.
“Some laps were good, other laps I was messing it up and it doesn’t come as constant, as regular as it did in the past.
“We’re working on that as a team. I’m confident it will still take a couple of steps but we’re willing to take them.”
Vettel added that he was still enjoying F1, despite his problems.
He said: “I have one quote I very often read to myself, from a very good friend: ‘Forget the people around you now; remember the little boy who was racing in go-karts, what you were dreaming of and what he wanted to achieve one day and what was his goal. Race for him.’
“I fell in love with the sport, I love racing. The amount of satisfaction I get just going around in a Formula 1 car makes me smile.
“So if it is a bad day then you tend to come out and say it’s horrible and you don’t enjoy. But if you had to pick between that and doing nothing, you would always pick that.”
Vettel says it would be premature to rule himself out of this year’s title race until it is mathematically impossible
And he insisted he has not given up hope of making up enough ground to win the championship over the remaining 10 races.
“If there is mathematically a chance, there is still a chance,” he said.
“If things turn around from this weekend onwards you’d be stupid not to take the opportunity. So you have to be optimistic.
“Being realistic, though, the gap is very big. Mercedes are in a position to win every race if they want to, so it will be difficult to beat them.
“But our target is to finish first. We are not here to finish third or fifth. If that is the best you can do, you have to be happy with that and respect what other people are doing, but the goal is to win races and fight for the championship.”
