Sebastian Vettel says he remains confident that he can take victory at the United States Grand Prix, as he attempts to keep the Formula 1 title fight alive.
Vettel led the championship battle through to Italy but has slipped away from Lewis Hamilton, after a sequence of reliability setbacks and incidents.
Vettel will line up from the front row of the grid at the Circuit of the Americas, behind Hamilton, and is sure he has the package to overhaul his rival during the race.
“Well, it’s pretty straightforward – I think we have to win and then we see what happens,” Vettel said of his title prospects.
“Obviously we are not in the position that we would like to be but still we have a chance so we go for that and it’s pretty straightforward.
“We have the car, we had the car to win the last three races, didn’t happen, so I don’t see why the next four races we shouldn’t have the package to win.”
Vettel’s qualifying lap came off the back of a difficult Friday, which prompted a change of chassis, and Vettel heaped praise on Ferrari for the work undertaken.
“The team was fantastic, the mechanics now had a couple of weekends in a row with a lot of work, with last-minute engine changes, now a chassis change and they didn’t break the curfew,” he said.
“Obviously it’s not what we want, but obviously [in qualifying] it was a lot better, I was much happier with the car. I’m glad it worked out.
“I think in the end we were closer than probably we even expected; for the race I think if the car behaves like [in qualifying] it should be good.”
