Hungry Vettel just wants a winning car

The German, who made a sensational grand prix debut with BMW in 2006 before moving to Scuderia Toro Rosso last season, has only competed in 17 races but is tipped as one of the stars of the future.

He has been linked with David Coulthard's seat at Red Bull Racing next year after the Scot announced his retirement at the end of the current season.

The 21-year-old says he is happy with his current situation, but admits he wants to be with a team who allow him to win races.

"I'm very happy with who I am nowadays, but I am hungry," Vettel said. "I want to achieve more. I'm very happy now with the situation but my target is to be in a competitive car and fight for wins. That's the priority.

"Everything else for me, as long as I have enough to eat and go out to a restaurant some nights for me the most important thing is the racing. Let's say it like this.

"If I had to choose between earning a lot of money and driving a medium car or no money, sleeping in a tent, washing your teeth every morning with a bottle of water and having the best car on the grid I would definitely go for the best car on the grid."

The German also claims he has not been worried about the future of his Toro Rosso team, despite the outfit being put up for sale.

"No. It would be wrong if it did," said Vettel when asked if he was worried. "I keep my head down and try to do the best I can. After races like last year in Japan and China everyone said 'ah, you have proven that you deserve to be in Formula One'.

"I don't know, I tried to do my best and more than that I cannot do. For me, my opinion is as soon as I start to think about all these things too much it is negative for my performance on the track. It maybe sounds stupid - I don't have a lot of experience in F1 but I have done karting a lot and if you don't forget what you learn there it can be very useful.

"No matter what you do, it's not easy. At the end you just have to focus and do it exactly how you did it in the past. You always have to progress, to learn and to develop as a driver and as a person, then you will get better."