Vettel out for hat-trick

World champion Sebastian Vettel said yesterday his back-to-back title triumphs in the last two years would count for little when the 2012 Grand Prix season gets underway in Australia on March 18.

On the day when Red Bull used the Internet to unveil their new “fourth generation” RB8 car, the 24-year-old German took the time out to dwell on his hopes of making it a hat-trick of world titles.

“It’s difficult to say (what will happen). Every season we start from zero again,” Vettel said.

“Unlike other sports, in tennis for instance, you’re the number one in the world and there is a certain gap between you and the number two. You have this cushion and it doesn’t matter if it’s one year or another year, you still have it.

“Whereas for us it all starts from zero again, zero points, where everyone has the same chance and we are all building our new cars.”

Vettel had his second world title last year sown up with three races still to go. Team-mate Marc Webber went on to take third place.

Together, their all-conquering Red Bulls dominated the constructors championship, finishing well ahead of McLaren and Ferrari.

Their performances prompted Bernie Ecclestone to declare that he would prefer if there was more of a competition in the sport and Vettel agrees that he has set himself near impossibly high standards.

“To be honest you don’t start the season with expectations to have the same or a similar season again. The target is obviously to try to do it again,” he said.