Vettel reign stuns Schumacher
MICHAEL Schumacher has expressed his amazement at Sebastian Vettel’s ‘‘shocking’’ scale of superiority over team-mate Mark Webber in 2013 and made it clear he would be happy for his countryman to eventually surpass his array of Formula One records.
Nearly a decade after Schumacher won the last of his record seven drivers’ titles, Vettel clinched his fourth crown in a row — becoming just the fourth, and youngest, quadruple World Champion in the process — while in his season he also equalled his boyhood hero’s record for the most wins.
Vettel, whose worst race result across the 18 GPs he finished in 2013 was fourth, also accrued enough points to have won the Constructors’ Championship single-handedly, while Webber, who has now headed for F1 retirement, could do no better than five second-placings.
And Schumacher says it was the current World Champion’s dominance over the sister Red Bull that puts his achievements into real perspective — and admits that such an intra-team challenge would have been ominous to face, even for him.
‘‘Great job, very consistent,’’ Schumacher replied when asked to assess Vettel’s season yesterday.
‘‘ Look at his teammate, that’s your reference point that you’ve got to take. He won all those races, 13 this year, Mark Webber won none in the end. That’s pretty shocking — I’m glad I’m not his team-mate!’’
Vettel’s sustained success means that, despite still being only 26 years of age, the German is now already firmly placed in the top five on the sport’s most prestigious alltime lists such as titles, pole positions and race victories.
Schumacher, who won 91 grands prix before he retired for the first time in 2006, still leads most of the tables by a considerable margin but admits that if anyone is to eventually beat his records than he would like it to be Vettel.
‘‘ Definitely he’s a truly (worthy) champion and I’m really happy for him,’’ Schumacher added.