“Do I Hang Myself?” – Sebastian Vettel Slams Disrespectful Media

Sebastian Vettel has been in the Formula 1 circus since his debut in 2007. However, he has yet to figure out how the media ticks and has wondered about their myriad ways. To that end, the four-time world champion is of the opinion that the press is disrespectful towards the drivers.

So far, Sebastian Vettel has not enjoyed a particularly good season at Scuderia Ferrari. The German struggled to win races and has often cracked under pressure and made mistakes. What does not help his cause is a younger and often faster teammate, Charles Leclerc.

More than once, Ferrari’s radio waves have been filled with both drivers warring with each other. For their part, the ravenous media is simply lapping it all up and making mountains out of molehills.

So, Sebastian Vettel fails to understand how the press is able to blow things way out of proportion. He finds it ridiculous how the media sometimes deals with this. The German driver confessed that he does get angry or frustrated, but it should not be scrutinised so heavily.

Speaking to the F1 Racing magazine, he said, “Do I hang myself? No, so you just keep going. Do you know what I mean? That is just racing for me. Sometimes it can be very beautiful and sometimes very cruel,”

“It’s like playing tennis and I scream because I didn’t give the ball enough spin. The ball goes out and I scream just like John McEnroe.” 

Vettel cited the example of every athlete who also get a little bit angry or emotional. The four-time world champion therefore believes that the media should stop measuring it so broadly. Sebastian Vettel declared that one frustrating on-board radio does not mean that a driver should go straight to a psychologist for anger management.

“Then I speak to the media two weeks later and they will ask if I have a problem with anger management. If you think about it, it’s so disrespectful. You’ve had two weeks to think up questions and then you come up with this?” That is disrespectful.”