Red Bull driver is learning to live with the negatives that come with winning.
Runaway Formula One leader Sebastian Vettel said he’d had to “learn to deal” with booing after fans started to get tired of his incessant winning.
The 26-year-old German, who has won the last three world titles and is on course for a fourth, was greeted by the latest chorus of boos on the podium at this month’s Italian Grand Prix.
But Vettel, speaking ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix — where he has won the last two races — said fans should remember that Red Bull work hard for their success.
“I think you learn to deal with a situation. Obviously if you look at the fan base we have it’s much bigger than two or three years ago so there’s plenty of positives as well,” he said.
“For sure there’s some people that are tired of Red Bull winning, but we’re not and we know there’s no guarantee. We arrive here, we know we have a strong package but we have to work hard to be at the front.
“From the outside or with hindsight you can say ‘ah yeah, they finished on the podium so many times, they won so many races’. But every race was a new challenge, that’s the most important bit, that you remember how hard work it was to get there in the first place.”
Vettel has won three of the last four races to take this year’s championship by the scruff of the neck. He could potentially claim the title as early as next month in Japan.
But his success, reminiscent of Michael Schumacher’s five titles in a row from 2000 to 2004, has begun to chafe with some fans, with “Anyone but Vettel” accounts appearing on Facebook and Twitter.
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