Vettel says no regrets about Macau

The German made the switch to Carlin for the blue-ribbon F3 contest, having raced for the crack ASM team all season, but he failed to deliver the kind of performance many had expected.

An engine misfire on the first day got his weekend off to a bad start and he never looked like being able to challenge for pole position.

A lack of straight-line speed and brake problems compromised his chances of a good showing in the qualification race, before he eventually crashed out. An engine change then put him at the back of the grid for the main race.

He made brilliant progress through the field, moving up to seventh at one point, but would crash out near the end after an over-optimistic move by Roberto Streit to try and overtake him.

Despite the disappointing end to his weekend, Vettel remains philosophical about what happened and said he has no regrets about opting to join Carlin - whom he is set to race for in the World Series by Renault championship next year.

"It's over now and there is no need to spend any time thinking about this," he said. "We expected to run at the front, but it didn't happen.

"It's been a tough weekend. We've been in trouble with the car all weekend but we could still have finished in the top six, which would have been good. But my race ended when Roberto came from a long way back at Lisboa down the inside, and we touched. Roberto is a really nice guy usually, but that was the end of it."

Although a lack of straight-line speed was a key factor in not allowing Vettel to shine, with rival Mercedes-Benz engines dominating the weekend, the German believes that if his weekend had run smoothly from the start then he could still have challenged at the front.

"The potential of the Mugen-Honda is fine and I think it is able to run with the Mercedes-Benz," he said. "But there was an issue that we could not solve, and that meant it was not at 100 percent of its potential."

And Vettel says he has got nothing but support for all the effort that Carlin made to accommodate him.

"Overall, I just want to say a big thank you to the team. From the very first session in the guys were motivated and both they and the guys from Neil Brown (engine tuners) supported everything from my side. Everyone was trying hard and I've got a big respect for that.

"Unfortunately we could not get a podium, but what can you do?"