The skills of Sebastian Vettel’s teammate have contributed to the reigning world champion’s image problem.<\/p>\n
McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh would not entirely agree with that statement.<\/p>\n
As the F1 paddock weighs up Vettel’s place among the sport’s greats on the eve of his fourth world title, Whitmarsh thinks the German’s biggest problem has been Fernando Alonso.<\/p>\n
“I think generally it is thought that Vettel gets the points the car deserves, while Fernando has gone a step further than that in the past couple of seasons,” he told the Spanish sports newspaper AS.<\/p>\n
“Alonso is the reason Vettel doesn’t get the recognition he deserves,” Whitmash added.<\/p>\n
But 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, once a fierce critic of Vettel’s, fiercely disagrees.<\/p>\n
“Whoever says that the car is better than Vettel needs to look at how he has destroyed Mark Webber, year after year,” Villeneuve told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.<\/p>\n
Even Red Bull’s own Dr Helmut Marko would agree with that.<\/p>\n
“We give both drivers the same car,” he insisted.\u00a0 “But how often has Mark won against Vettel?” he asked rhetorically.<\/p>\n
That, however, may be entirely the cause of Vettel’s image problem.\u00a0 He now beats the retiring Australian veteran Webber consistently, but – at the wheel of an Adrian Newey-penned car – is that enough?<\/p>\n
Eddie Irvine told the British broadcaster Sky recently: “If you don’t have a good car, you can’t win it (the championship) unless you’re Michael Schumacher; unless you’re Ayrton Senna.<\/p>\n
“Lots of guys win in Adrian Newey’s cars … big deal.\u00a0 Adrian’s the real genius.\u00a0 There’s Schumacher, there’s Senna, there’s Newey,” he added.<\/p>\n
Nico Rosberg would agree that the ‘Newey’ and ‘Webber’ factors do not help how people perceive Vettel’s achievements.<\/p>\n
“For sure it would help his perception if he had – and nothing against Mark who is a fantastic driver and a great person – if he had a Fernando-calibre driver next to him,” he told the Telegraph.<\/p>\n
Another German, Nico Hulkenberg, agrees: “I think if he had a Kimi next to him, or Fernando at Ferrari, and still came out on top then it’s fair to say he would be regarded even more highly.”<\/p>\n
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