{"id":15775,"date":"2012-04-10T07:01:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T11:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=15775"},"modified":"2012-04-10T07:01:42","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T11:01:42","slug":"vettel-says-mclaren-the-team-to-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/vettel-says-mclaren-the-team-to-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"Vettel says McLaren &#8216;the team to beat&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>McLaren remains &#8220;the team to beat&#8221; despite the topsy-turvy outcome of the recent Malaysian grand prix.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-left alignleft\" style=\"margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2012-rif-images\/f1-12-drivers\/Sebastian-Vettel-2.jpg\" alt=\"Sebastian-Vettel-2\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\" \/>That is the claim of reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, having slumped to sixth in the drivers&#8217; standings after a dire weekend in Malaysia.<\/p>\n<p>The formerly-dominant Red Bull driver now lags a Ferrari and even a Sauber, after Fernando Alonso and the unlikely Sergio Perez proved the cream of the slippery Sepang circuit.<\/p>\n<p>Vettel, however, is still thinking silver.<\/p>\n<p>Asked by the French-language RMC Sport to name the &#8216;best team&#8217; of the moment, the German answered: &#8220;There are several.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But McLaren seems very strong right now.\u00a0 They are the team to beat,&#8221; said Vettel.<\/p>\n<p>The trophy enthusiast received a small memento on the Melbourne podium last month, but a more impressive prize was the prestigious Grand Prix de l&#8217;Academie des Sports that he collected from FIA president Jean Todt recently in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That was my first trophy (of 2012),&#8221; he laughed, &#8220;but I want much more than that!<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a long championship,&#8221; Vettel argued.\u00a0 &#8220;We did quite a good job in Australia, and Malaysia was chaotic with the weather.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have a good car and the objective is to fight for the title.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>McLaren remains &#8220;the team to beat&#8221; despite the topsy-turvy outcome of the recent Malaysian grand prix. That is the claim of reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, having slumped to sixth in the drivers&#8217; standings after a dire weekend in Malaysia. The formerly-dominant Red Bull driver now lags a Ferrari and even a Sauber, after Fernando &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[5262,5340,1178,5284,129,164],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15776,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15775\/revisions\/15776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}