Sebastian Vettel reached another career landmark in Singapore. Vettel's 42nd win placed him ahead of Ayrton Senna, but behind only Michael Schumacher and Alain Prost on the all-time wins list.
While Vettel also matched Schumacher's 1996 achievement of scoring three wins in his first Ferrari season, he was keen to avoiding comparisons with his fellow countryman and mentor.
"I don't think you can really draw that comparison," said Vettel. "I think I could consider myself the luckiest racing driver in the world if there were as many race wins to come as there was with Michael."
Vettel was quick to remind how Ferrari's racecars now, compared to when Schumacher was racing with the team, handle drastically different.
"In all fairness, I think the car he had in 1996 was a lot worse than what we have this year, which shows again what a great racing driver he was," said Vettel.
Vettel also noted how much he has appreciated his racing career up to this point, as well as how grateful he is to have Kimi Raikkonen as his Ferrari teammate.
"You know the way I was growing up, I just enjoyed racing, and then to find myself nowadays having a teammate that I looked up to when I was young, racing him and seeing what he does, racing on a similar level to him and racing other guys that are really great like Daniel, like Lewis, like Nico," said Vettel.
"I can consider myself very, very lucky that I got in a position always to have a great team around me the last couple of years, and keep going that way."
Vettel thinks reaching Prost's 51 career wins is a realistic target.
"I think, to be honest, Prost's is in sight somehow," said Vettel. "But, Michael's [record] is just ridiculous with the number of wins, number of poles, number of fastest laps."
Vettel even made a witty comparison referring to how much of a distance there is between the statistics he has posted, and the astonishing numbers Schumacher reached throughout his career.
"So if you have 23 corners in Singapore, I consider myself being in turn one and Michael in turn 23," said Vettel.
Overall, Vettel is not focused on breaking any of Schumacher's records, but is more thankful for the success achieved in his own racing career.
"I'm not really looking at that," said Vettel. "I think I can consider myself very lucky and blessed the way things have turned out. I've always had a more or less competitive car, competitive team, so if it keeps going that way then I can consider myself very lucky."
