Sebastian Vettel says that Ferrari will take positives going into 2017 after a first podium finish since September at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The German driver became the first Ferrari driver to finish in the top three of a race since he finished third at the home of the team in Italy.
The second German champion of the 21st century also congratulated the third champion from the country during the last 23 years, Nico Rosberg, after his championship triumph.
Vettel finished incredibly close to the back of the rival Mercedes, using DRS to try and find a way past, but Rosberg triumphed in the late fight for second place.
He said that the final laps of the race were hard but that he was going for the win having seen how slowly race winner Lewis Hamilton was lapping. At one point on fresh tyres, Vettel was 1.8s faster a lap than the Brit.
“It was tough out there, the last couple of laps,” Vettel said.
“I was trying to get close and have another go because I was thinking, ‘why not pass both of them?’, if Lewis is going that slow in front, but, it was difficult because my tyres were also dropping more.”
He used a two-stop strategy, going from ultra-softs to softs to super-softs for a final assault on cars in front. Vettel passed both Red Bull’s of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo late on but couldn’t get a better result than third, but was happier with the outcome after a difficult first half.
“You mention the strategy, [I was a] bit stuck at the beginning of the race, couldn’t really unfold my pace, starting to get a bit frustrated.”
Vettel defended his Ferrari team after a difficult year for the outfit that has seen no wins, 11 podiums between himself and Kimi Raikkonen, and James Allison leaving their team. He passionately patted the team’s logo on his overalls after jumping off the podium having received his trophy.
“The whole team deserves the podium today. We’ve worked so hard, we’ve had so much criticism this year. Sometimes right, sometimes not justified, but that’s how it goes, it’s a tough game, we’re fighting really tough opponents.”
He hopes that they can use the result as optimism for confidence going into the 2017 season.
“It’s been a tough year but obviously it’s nice to finish on a high and I think we take that momentum into next year. There’s a lot of work going on at Maranello so big thanks also to everyone there.”
This podium finish confirms Vettel’s fourth-place finish in the Driver’s Championship, ending the season on 212 points, eight clear of Verstappen.
