Entrevista do Seb ao "Daily Mail"
Autor: jujubinha | Publicado: 2013-09-04T19:53:00-03:00





SEBASTIAN
VETTEL: I can deal with being unpopular but Brits booing me wasn't fair



By JONATHAN
MCEVOY



Down in a
garage at the foot of Eau Rouge - the fabled steepling right-hander at
Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps circuit - Sebastian Vettel is talking fast and
smiling easily. 



He is in
jeans and hoodie, perched on a sofa, and looking so boyish for his 26 years
that he could be a gap-year student doing India on a handful of rupees a day.



But he is
Formula One world champion for the third consecutive time and the possessor of
around £50million in earnings. Few modern sportsmen of his stature wear their
glory more lightly. 



Indeed, he
is the same kid I remember from an evening in the BMW motorhome when he was
finding his way in grand prix&nbsp; racing. He
came over to talk to me, a colleague from the Daily Express and a much-loved
Formula One figure, press officer Ann Bradshaw, who clearly doted on the German
driver like a mother.

While she
called up the food, he (a big fan of British comedy shows and Cockney rhyming
slang) stopped to chat and tell us about his new favourite English world:
kerfuffle. 



Many
sportsmen are approachable when relatively unknown, only to grow wary or
reluctant or rude once they have scaled the peaks of their profession. Not so
Vettel, the most decorated driver of his generation - the youngest&nbsp; single, double and triple world champion. 



Yet a
mythology has built,&nbsp; portraying Vettel
as a pantomime villain at best or unlovable automaton at worst. Others say he
is flattered by being in the dominant, Adrian Newey-designed car. 



Even in
Germany some argue he is not a man of the people the way Michael Schumacher
was. The old master, the theory goes, would have been, say, a mechanic if he
had not been the world's most successful racer, whereas Vettel comes from a
slightly richer family and is more cerebral. 



In Britain,
the anti-Vettel feeling has occasionally been stronger. When he retired from
this year's British Grand Prix he was shamefully booed by a number of the&nbsp; crowd. Why? He is German and old enmities die
hard. He is so successful he breeds resentment for no better reason. Does it
hurt him? 



'It's
normal,' he says, smiling, the afternoon after he cruised to victory at the
Belgian Grand Prix. 'I am very happy. I obviously would not swap with anybody. 



'There are
situations or stories where you want to tell&nbsp;
people the truth as you see it. You learn to deal with the fact some
think what they want. If it reaches the point where it takes your attention
away from your racing then it has got in the way.' 



Has that
ever&nbsp; happened? 'No.' But was the reaction
at Silverstone surprising? 'Yes. I didn't understand it. I had not done
anything to make them do it. I went up on to the stage later for the post-race
concert and got booed again. I took my camera out and said, "If you are
going to boo me at least do it properly". I tried to make a laugh out of
it. 



'But you
don't like it when people boo. Obviously in the British Grand Prix if I am
leading and they want a British driver to win they might not like it, which is
fair, but booing, I don't think that is fair. If one starts booing, others join
in. I don't think they were all wanting to boo per se; it was a chain reaction,
so you shouldn't get too upset by that.'



Part of the
ill-feeling was perhaps caused by Vettel's lowest moment as a sportsman: when
he ignored team orders and overtook Mark Webber to win the Malaysian Grand Prix
in March. 

He says:
'The one thing I regret is that I put myself above the team. I apologised.
Apart from that I am racing - and I am not apologising for that.' 



But is
Vettel given favourable treatment at Red Bull? 'I am at the source to judge
that it isn't true. Mark and I have the same car and the same chance to win.'
So why does Webber allege otherwise? 'Everybody chooses his path.' 



It is a
diplomatic response dripping with feeling. Thankfully for Red Bull's
management, Vettel's troubled dynamic with Webber has just eight races to
run&nbsp; - the first on Sunday in Italy -
before the older man leaves Formula&nbsp; One
to be replaced by another Australian, Daniel Ricciardo. 



Despite the
criticism, Vettel, speaking at his unveiling as a Braun ambassador, has won
avid admirers. No less than Sir Stirling Moss has drawn comparisons with his
hero Juan Manuel Fangio. While Vettel's prowess is clear - he has won 31 of his
112 races - his down-to-earth nature is almost equally remarkable. His friends
are mostly from school and his girlfriend Hanna, whom he protects from media
exposure, is his school sweetheart. He still goes to watch football with his
pals, having a beer and a sausage.



'Typical
German,' he says with a laugh. 'I give them s*** and they give me s***. It is
normal -&nbsp; a nice break from the track.'



He has no
manager, though Bernie Ecclestone, with whom he plays backgammon, is a close
adviser after Vettel sought him out as a novice. He discusses his own
contracts, with a lawyer in the background to tie up loose ends. 



'Sebastian
has never changed,' sagacious Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said.
'He brings chocolates for the receptionist every time he visits the factory.' 



Vettel
lives on a farm between Zurich and Lake Constance, eschewing the glitz of
Monaco for rural Switzerland. It is a contrast to the world of Lewis Hamilton,
the Briton supposed to vie with Fernando Alonso for the title of driver of his
generation before Vettel and Red Bull overtook them. 



'Lately, I
have got on very well with Lewis,' said Vettel. 'He has a different lifestyle,
it is fair to say that. I am not on Facebook. I am not on Twitter. I choose the
farm, way outside the city. For him, maybe the city and some parties is what he
likes. I don't judge him.



'I think it
is important to be who I am. The moment you try to be someone else it
backfires. If someone, Lewis for example, likes to live a certain life, in the
celebrity world, it is the best way he will recover, strange as it sounds. It
probably allows him to perform at his optimum.'



Vettel, so
superstitious he not only carries two silver coins in his socks but once became
so obsessed with black cats crossing the road in front of him he kept detouring
half an hour on his way home, is not counting the expected fourth world title
as already won. His lead of 46 points is commanding but not impregnable.

If he wins
No 4, he knows his drink of choice: a Jager Bomb, or several. This mixture of
Jagermeister and Red Bull has been the team's tipple after the closing race in
Brazil over the last couple of years. 



'They were
very numerous,' he said. 'We had a good reason.' 

Let us hope
the boo-boys will learn not to begrudge this modest, grounded and unflashy
champion another taste of success. 



Ótima entrevista de Seb ao "Daily Mail"



Entre outras coisas, ele fala da tristeza pelas vaias recebidas em Silverstone :((((



Tadinho :((((   Imagina em Monza, já tô triste só de pensar nas vaias (.....)



Achei bonitinho isso q o Horner disse:  Sebastian nunca mudou. Ele traz chocolates para a recepcionista cada vez que visita a fábrica (!)



Chocolate (suiço??)  Pensa (!!)   #sebmuitofofo&nbsp;