Saturday, 2 November 2013 00:00
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James Hunt would doubtless have done it differently but Sebastian Vettel’s idea of bliss after winning the Formula One championship for the fourth year in a row was a few quiet days at home.
The partying can wait for Red Bull’s 26-year-old German, the sport’s youngest quadruple champion, who still has unfinished business this season with three races yet to be won.
“We want to race; race the others as hard as possible,” he told reporters at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix where he is chasing a seventh successive win to equal compatriot Michael Schumacher’s 2004 seven in a row.
“If we have a chance, we want to win.”
No other driver in the modern era has won seven times consecutively, with Italian Alberto Ascari setting the record of nine in 1952/53.
Vettel had little time to celebrate his success in India last Sunday, with team members having to dismantle cars and equipment before some of them took early flights the next day.
On Sunday, after hours of media activity, Vettel stayed on to help mechanics pack up and then indulged in a few ‘Jaegerbombs’ in the hotel bar with those team mates who happened to be there.
The next day he flew home to Switzerland.
“Obviously, there’s not a lot of time between the race in India and the race here, so the team is very busy,” said Vettel. “So we couldn’t go completely mad, but I had a time on Sunday night and then I had two days at home before coming here, again fairly quiet, not very spectacular. I just enjoyed the peace at home.
“I had some time for myself, back with my girlfriend as well.”
Team principal Christian Horner said a bigger celebration was planned for the whole team after next month’s final race of the season in Brazil.
