Sebastian Vettel has admitted that Red Bull have had a "bad first half of the season" after he was forced to retire for the third time in 2014 at today's Austrian Grand Prix.
The reigning world champion, who is without a win this season, suffered a loss of drive in his Red Bull early in the race before damaging the car in a collision with Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez.
The German told Sky Sports News: "We stopped because we wanted to save some mileage. We were hoping for a safety car but it wasn't coming. Obviously, it has been a bad first half of the season with a few retirements and other problems, but I guess it's part of the game.
"Equally we were able to learn a lot today and it's good that Daniel [Ricciardo] got some points for us. It would be bad to say I got used to it, but obviously we have had a lot of problems so far already and I got calmer when the problem occurred.
"Our pace looked alright and we were able to go quite far on the soft tyre, but we were a lap down so in the end we decided to save some mileage."
Vettel sits fifth in the drivers' standings, 23 points behind his teammate and 105 behind leader Nico Rosberg of Mercedes, who won at the Red Bull Ring today.
