Vettel maintains he will honour Ferrari team orders in 2020, but…

Sebastian Vettel says he will continue to race as a team player for Ferrari during the 2020 F1 season despite the spectre of his looming exit at the end of the season.

Ahead of this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix the German made his first media appearance since it was confirmed his tenure at Ferrari would conclude this season, before revealing it was the team that motivated his departure.

With Charles Leclerc on a new long-term contract and Vettel on his way out, the four-time world champion’s comments will potentially be seen as Ferrari’s appraisal of an error-prone 2019 season that involved more than one collision with his team-mate.

With this in mind, Vettel maintains he won’t change his mindset in races knowing he is on his way out.

Then again, he also intimates this is because he feels he has always approached races in a way that puts the team first.

“I have always tried to integrate inside a team and the same goes for my time with Ferrari,” he said ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix. “As much as you want to have success on track and look after your own result, in the end you are driving for a team as well.

“I think this year is very difficult to answer because we don’t know what type of season we have ahead of us and we don’t know how competitive we will be.

“Should the situation arise and it makes perfect sense then you expect both drivers to help each other out. I don’t think that has anything to do with the fact that my contract expires and I am going to leave the team, but at the same time you are racing for yourself.

Indeed, Vettel counters by saying he isn’t prepared to ‘make Charles’ life easy’ in the heat of battle but won’t be actively looking to scupper chances for him.

“I am not trying to make Charles’ life easy on track in terms of waving him by, I think we have been fighting each other in the past and we will continue to do so.”