Sebastian Vettel is refusing to give up the belief that he can retain his championship crown this season, despite having failed to win a race this season so far.
The German is 95 points adrift of leader Nico Rosberg after just nine races, but with a maximum of 275 points still up for grabs this year, Vettel says it’d be “stupid” to rule him out.
“If you look at points and mathematics we can still fight for the world championship, so it would be stupid to say we’re out,” said the Red Bull driver.
However he concedes it will be very difficult to beat the dominant Mercedes duo.
“Being realistic, Mercedes is in a position where it can win every race and get a one-two, without having people bother them too much unless things are going wrong.
“Our target is to catch up and beat them sooner rather than later, but the gap is very big so therefore it’s difficult to close it in a short amount of time.”
His comments come after Fernando Alonso, who is 17 points ahead of Vettel, admitted that the title fight is over for anyone but Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
“I think if anyone apart from Rosberg and Hamilton is telling you they believe they can be world champion this year they will [be] lying,” he told The F1 Times during the British Grand Prix.
