Sebastian Vettel has refuted claims in the Italian media that he has "lost his talent".
The German has been subject to criticism in Ferrari's homeland over his recent performances, but the four-time world champion isn't fazed by what has been published in the press.
"The first headlines were 'Vettel is not so bad', so I think it will continue to go up and down with the media," he said.
"It's just proof of how highly the team is valued in Italy. On a bad day, the coverage is fierce, but that is because of how Ferrari is valued in Italy.
"Nothing against Mercedes, but I don't think that every German is automatically a Mercedes fan. But Ferrari is a way of life," added Vettel.
Asked, how he and Ferrari has dealt with the negative attention, he answered: "On bad days it's a burden but on good days it gives you an incredible boost.
"Of course we are not happy with our performance so far, but that cannot be changed overnight."
Vettel also admitted that the negative coverage affects Ferrari's staff too.
"Of course, many people read newspapers, but more importantly is how we deal with it internally. If the criticism is fair, we have to live with it, but it's also true that many little things are totally inflated," he added.
Vettel has cerainly a point here. Ferrari lives in the heart of most Italians and Scuderia fans. I don't think that Sebastian is to blaim for the results of Ferrari, allthough Kimi has the better hand at the moment. Ferrari has to blaim the strategy team which blunders very often. 18 rounds on softs at Suzuka is not the right decision, every race fan could tell you that if even Seb would have been in front Hamilton after hispitsstop, he would never kept him of. He would have had a chance on the hard tyres to catch up Verstappen and Hamilton but now he was lost by the compund choice
lol so true Mercedes is definitely not a way of life. That said the monster that is the Italian gutter press is solely the creation of Ferrari, they help make the repulsive force it is today. Ferrari will never get to succeed consistently as long as the Italian media has importance. Vettel or Kimi might see glory yet but it will be like a fluke that is short lived because to have good performance you need to be focused on the job, not try appease a gutter press.
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Vettel has cerainly a point here. Ferrari lives in the heart of most Italians and Scuderia fans. I don't think that Sebastian is to blaim for the results of Ferrari, allthough Kimi has the better hand at the moment. Ferrari has to blaim the strategy team which blunders very often. 18 rounds on so... [Read more]