‘To doubt Seb is to disrespect Mark’

Christian Horner believes those who still doubt Sebastian Vettel’s talent are actually being “disrespectful” to Mark Webber…

Christian Horner believes those who still doubt Sebastian Vettel’s talent are actually being “disrespectful” to Mark Webber.

Joining forces at Red Bull Racing in 2009, Vettel has beaten his team-mate in all four of their years together and again holds the advantage this season.

While the German finished runner-up in his first year before going on to win three consecutive Drivers’ titles, Webber’s best result in the Championship was his P3 in 2010 and 2011.

But despite Vettel’s impressive results in recent years, there are some who still question the 26-year-old’s ability as a racer.

And Horner reckons to do so is to question Webber’s ability as well.

Asked by Autosport what he would say to those who doubt Vettel, Horner responded: “I think that’s very disrespectful to Mark Webber, because we run two cars and Mark is a good race driver, a very good race driver.

“There are always going to be people that have opinions, particularly some of your opponents.

“I think it is without any shadow of a doubt that Sebastian is most definitely the real deal.”

As for whether or not Vettel is up there with F1’s all-time greats, the Red Bull team boss said: “He needs to keep on winning, just keep on winning.

“He can only do what he can do, he can only do his best and I think the fact that he has achieved so much at such a young age is quite remarkable. He will continue to get stronger.

“It’s that halcyon period at the moment in Formula 1, you’ve got Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Button, Webber… you have some very strong drivers out there.

“He has achieved what he has in a formula where everyone has the same tyres and most of us can’t go testing. It’s a much more level playing field.

“That, in effect, makes it even more impressive.

“If we had the best car, we would have finished 1-2 in all the races and in each of the World Championships, but we haven’t.”