F1 veteran Peter Windsor says Sebastian Vettel was ‘never in same class’ as Lewis Hamilton

Sebastian Vettel was 'never in the same class' as Lewis Hamilton, according to respected F1 journalist Peter Windsor. 
Sebastian Vettel was ‘never in same class’ as Lewis Hamilton

Windsor, who was also a former F1 team and sponsorship manager, believes four-time world💯 champion Vettel became an “ordinary racing driver” when he no longer had a car that suited his driving style. 

The exhaust-blown diffuser concept was key to much of Red Bull’s success following a regulation overhaul in 2009, leading Vettel to claim four successive world titles between 2010 and 2013. But when new hybrid regulations came into force in 2014, Vettel’s form nosedived, resulting in him being beaten by teammate 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Daniel Ricciardo

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Vettel left for Ferr🌸ari in 2015 but was neve♋r able to reach the heights of his Red Bull glory days and was unable to win another world championship. The German called time on his illustrious career at the end of 2022, following two disappointing seasons with Aston Martin. 

“I always thꦯought Vettel was a very reflexy, very fast, very well-balanced driver wh🦩o, even in his testing for Sauber days, was nothing other than the ultimate exponent of turning the corner into a V shape,” Windsor said on his Twitch channel. 

“And when he couldn’t do that because o🧜f the geography of the corner, he was about the same as the average [driver], but when he could do it on a particular type of corner, he was brilliant and had🌠 that ability to do it.

“And he had that at Red Bull, when he had that amazing grip at the rear, blown diffuser and ev꧋erything else.

“When that went away in the regulati🦩o♔ns in his last year at Red Bull, he became just an ordinary racing driver and actually struggled against Daniel Ricciardo. It was obvious then that that’s how he was exposed.

“He didn’t say at the enꦡd of that year, or during that year, ‘wow, I’m in trouble here. When I don’t have a great back end, I need to start to be able to play with it a bit more and do more with the front, get the front to work.’

“[There were] all sor✃ts of things he could have done but he didn’🐎t do any of that.

“He just signed off and went to Ferrari and arrived as the four꧟-time World Champion who was greeted witꦏh a lot of money and a lot of fan adulation.

“And he 𝐆never got any better, he was still the same driver. That💎’s the Sebastian Vettel story.”

Sebastian Vettel was ‘never in same class’ as Lewis Hamilton

And Windsor reckons both seven-time world champion Hamilton - who beat Vettel in head-to-head title fights in 2017 and 2018 - and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Fernando Alonso were always clear of Ve𝓡ttel in 💛terms of raw talent. 

“The only thing you only can add is that he’s also the guy, behind the Safety Car, who drove into Lewis Hamilton at Baku [in 2017] because he was annoyed with Lewis for driving slowly,𝐆” he added. 

“He got away with that. He got away with that wiꦍth a very, very small fine whereas Dan🍃 Ticktum lost his licence for a year for doing virtually the same thing. So that was disproportionate. He was very lucky, I think, to get away with that.

“I never would have put him in the same class as Lewis. Maybe, if he’s got a really good back end on the car, I’d put him up there with Fernando [Alonso] – but if he’s got a wayward back end 🐎and not a lot of grip [he’s in trouble].

“Overall, throw a bit of crosswind at Seb, throw a bit of crosswind at Fernando, throw a biꦿt of oil on the track, throw a b☂it of tyres going off – Fernando’s always going to do a better job [than Vettel] with all the variables up in the air.

“Seb is very locked into what he does well.”

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