"We want to win here and if we finish one-two I guess it has a silencing effect on that front as well," says Vettel after accusations over the team's engine performance
Thursday 14 November 2019 19:28, UK
Sebastian Vettel is confident Ferrari can put their Austin woes behind them and return to "normal form" in the Brazilian GP.
Ferrari failed to finish on the podium for the first time in 14 races last time out at the United States GP, with struggles for pace on race day on track leaving them nearly a minute adrift of race winners Mercedes.
Meanwhile, the Scuderia faced accusations off the track that an FIA technical directive concerning the use of fuel-flow meters had hurt their engine power - a suggestion the team strongly denied.
A fortnight on, and Vettel believes they will be back to more competitive form around Interlagos, where he won two years ago.
"Obviously it looks like in Austin we were struggling, especially on the Sunday, for various reasons which we are still trying to understand," said the German driver.
"But I'm pretty confident that we can be back to our normal form here."
Ferrari were angered by comments from Red Bull rival Max Verstappen in Austin, when he suggested that the Scuderia's loss of performance was directly linked to the FIA's ruling, but when asked for his response to the Dutchman's claims, Vettel said: "Isn't it a sign of our times that a lot of people have something to say? The big difference to the past is that a lot of people are being heard, whereas maybe before they were being ignored.
"Not much to say; everybody is free to say what they want. If that is what he thinks that's what he might think, but obviously we have a different opinion."
Nonetheless, asked if a strong result on Sunday could silence those who have questioned Ferrari's engine advantage this year, Vettel replied: "There is nothing to silence for me, but I guess it helps.
"We want to win here and if we finish one-two I guess it has a silencing effect on that front as well. So maybe it's a nice side-effect but our target is not to silence people, our target is to win races."
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