Vettel less strong than Alonso and Hamilton according to Briatore
In an interview with Corriere dello Sport, the former team manager of Renault claims that Vettel is not stronger than Alonso or Hamilton and believes that pairing the Spaniard and the German at Ferrari would not benefit the Scuderia.
Since he clinched his second world championship last Sunday, Sebastian Vettel has been receiving praise, more or less emphatic, from F1 observers as well as from those who preceded him on the winners’ list like Jackie Stewart and Niki Lauda, or from certain team principals, like Martin Whitmarsh, who admitted he had to swallow his criticisms.
Never short on comments either, Flavio Briatore believes, however, that despite the credit due to him, the German is still not the best driver on the grid: Vettel is certainly good, but he won because he managed to make the most of a phenomenal car. […] He is not the best. Imagine a Grand Prix where everyone has the same car, well, Vettel would be behind Fernando Alonso, who is a pitbull and would win, and also behind Lewis Hamilton can be read in the Corriere dello Sport.
However, the flamboyant Italian acknowledges the superiority, in pure speed, of the Red Bull driver: « I see him in pole position, always assuming they have equal cars. Then, Hamilton would be second and Alonso third. »
Marc Gene, like Briatore, believes that it is in the execution of the fast lap where the German makes the difference, starting with his teammate: « Vettel builds his successes in qualifying by lapping very quickly, often setting his time in just one lap. At the start, he gets away well and rarely makes mistakes. In the race, however, the pace between Vettel and Mark Webber is very similar; at Suzuka, the team even had to ask Mark to slow down because otherwise, he would have caught up to Sebastian. »
In his interview with the *Corriere dello sport*, the former team manager of the Renault team, double world champion with the Spanish driver, also commented on the statements of Stefano Domenicali who assured, in the pages of the *Gazetta dello sport*, that an Alonso/Vettel lineup at Ferrari would work, something Flavio Briatore allows himself to doubt: « Who would benefit? Certainly not Maranello. The only issue is the drivers’ title, and putting a guy like Alonso with Vettel on the same team would only create confusion, as happened in 2007 between Hamilton and Alonso at McLaren. »
