Jody Scheckter praises Vettel and defends Hamilton

Less talkative than some of his former Formula 1 rivals, the 1979 world champion, interviewed by the BBC, shared his impressions on two of the strong men of this season: Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.

While some wonder if the German is destined to dominate the next decade, the South African driver believes that the current Red Bull driver could be one of the greatest drivers of all time.

I remember his first victory at Monza, in the wet, everyone just said: Wow. He still has a long, long way to go before breaking Michael’s records, but he looks very, very good right now. He will need to have the luck of having a good car with a good engine every year like Michael did, but can he do it? It seems so, yeah.

If the reigning world champion is well on his way to claiming his second consecutive crown, Jody Scheckter is striving to keep the suspense alive, though without much hope. « Can someone else win the championship? It has happened in the past […] but it will be very difficult for anyone to beat him, especially in his current form. He wins everything, he’s the fastest all the time. I would hate to have to bet against him, that’s for sure. […] Of course, he didn’t win at Silverstone, but everything seemed to indicate that he would; he started quickly and did everything he could do. »

However, the German driver has made some mistakes in the past that have cost him victories, sometimes precious ones. He’s learning, he’s a young driver. He’s getting better with the team, and Adrian Newey always seems to produce the best car, at least most of the time. He is truly fantastic, there is no doubt about it.

But for now, the German driver is not the most criticized for his errors, and Jody Scheckter took the opportunity to defend Lewis Hamilton, who faced more or less violent criticism following his maneuvers during the Monaco Grand Prix. « I would say he is probably the best driver I have seen in traffic and taking advantage of it. His maneuvers in Monaco were a bit silly […]. Despite everything, he is very good. The difference between being a fantastic attacker and being an idiot is thin. He is aggressive and feels very comfortable in very tight situations, that’s why he takes his chances. Sometimes, it doesn’t pay off. Last year, when Schumacher squeezed Barrichello against the pit wall at Hungaroring, that was very bad in my opinion, but it’s very different from diving inside someone to overtake and crashing into them. As I said, the difference between an idiot and a hero is thin. I think Hamilton is doing a good job. »