Oct.14 (GMM) Sebastian Vettel on Wednesday said he is not prepared to escalate his battle for the 2009 world championship into a psychological war.
“I don’t think very much about that,” the 22-year-old German said in an interview published by Germany’s Abendzeitung.
Vettel enters this weekend’s penultimate round in Brazil with only a slim chance of overhauling championship leader Jenson Button for the drivers’ title at Abu Dhabi in less than three weeks.
His Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has already compared Brawn’s Button with a football player about to blow a decisive penalty.
Horner’s latest appearance in the media is to observe that “he (Button) can lose everything and he will not be able to get that out of his mind”.
Vettel however vowed to concentrate only on his driving.
“I try not to be distracted by things like that (mind games),” he insisted. “What the others do is not in my hands.”
It is clear however that immense pressure is mounting on Button, who has headed to Sao Paulo after a holiday with his girlfriend in Hawaii.
Vettel will step into the Interlagos paddock as F1’s dominant last-start winner, and with some new parts for his RB5 — while Brawn raced its last car update for the season at Suzuka two weeks ago.
Moreover, boss Horner revealed that Vettel’s Red Bull will be further updated for the Abu Dhabi finale, with the scale of the title push summed up at Suzuka, when an out-of-contention Mark Webber spent part of his race afternoon testing an Interlagos-spec front wing.
“We have kept our heads down and kept pushing, and we will have some new components in the next two events,” Horner said.
Said Vettel: “I have nothing to lose and because of that I can really attack. Jenson has weakened a little bit so maybe this is our chance.”
