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Raikkonen: "It’s pointless" to blame Vettel for errors in title fight

14:10, 25 Oct 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Kimi Raikkonen has defended his teammate Sebastian Vettel after a series of high profile errors have led to the criticism of the German's driving. Vettel was left with yet another recovery drive in Austin after making contact with Daniel Ricciardo on the opening lap of the race.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, the Finn defended his Ferrari teammate saying that the errors Vettel had made were in the past and there was no point dwelling on them now.

“I don't know if he made a lot of mistakes,” Raikkonen said. "Germany he went off, but then it was pretty tricky conditions.

“I don't know if that really dictates what happened in the end result. It’s hard to say. There are always people trying to point finger here and there or (say) 'This is why he didn’t win'.

“You know, if you want to point finger on someone, there are millions of things that you can [say], 'ah, he should have done this like that and the end result would be different’.

“But afterwards it is very easy to always say that. You take 10 years backwards you can point, 'oh, you should have done that differently and you would have won'. It’s pointless.”

The mistakes look to have cost Vettel a chance of a fifth world championship in 2018, with the German needing to win all the remaining races this season and title rival Lewis Hamilton only needing to secure five points between Mexico and Abu Dhabi to clinch the championship.