Brawn: Vettel incidents "no longer a coincidence"

Formula One sporting director Ross Brawn thinks that Sebastian Vettel is "a bit out of sorts" as he thinks that the German's many mistakes in recent races can no longer be viewed as coincidental.

We can count at least five instances this season where Vettel made a high-profile mistake that either cost him a win or a big amount of points. The worst case was Germany, when he was comfortably in first place before losing control of his Ferrari and crashing it in the barriers, ending his race and missing out on 25 points.

We can also think of the French Grand Prix when he collided with Valtteri Bottas at T1, which led to him having to do a comeback race for the rest of the afternoon, and a similar incident at Monza with Lewis Hamilton. In Japan, he went for a gap inside of Max Verstappen which wasn't there which cost him a potential podium or win. And, of course, last weekend he collided with the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo, costing him a potential win in his title scrap with Hamilton.

"I certainly don't want to put Vettel in the dock, but these incidents can no longer be seen as coincidence," Brawn told Crash.net.

“Rather they would seem to indicate that Sebastian is a bit out of sorts at the moment."

"On Friday there was a small one, when he failed to slow sufficiently for red flags, and he paid the price with a three-place penalty," he referenced to last Friday in the United States.

"Then, in the race, he yet again collided with a Red Bull, this time Ricciardo's, and once again Vettel came off worst.

"It was another lost opportunity to close the gap in the title fight, especially when we saw what [Kimi] Raikkonen did with the same car."

When talking about Ferrari's hopes of winning their first title since Kimi Raikkonen did it in 2007, Brawn said that the team needs to be built around Vettel's immense talent. The Italian team needs to figure out how to get the best out of the German.

"You don't become a four-time world champion for no reason and Sebastian has definitely not forgotten how to win.

"In a sport as complicated as Formula 1, you only reach your goals if all the pieces of the jigsaw fall into place.

"If just one piece is missing everything is compromised."