Sep.7 (GMM) Toto Wolff has defended Sebastian Vettel amid widespread criticism of his driving in 2018.
Most now agree that Ferrari has the fastest car at the moment, but it is Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton with a comfortable 30 point lead with 7 races to go.
“I’m not completely neutral, but for me Lewis is the best driver of recent years,” Mercedes team boss Wolff told Die Welt newspaper.
“Even so, I find the criticism of Sebastian not quite fair.”
Indeed, pundits and the Italian press have been critical of the high-profile mistakes made by Vettel in 2018, particularly at Hockenheim but again on the first lap at Monza.
Wolff, though, says Vettel is just pushing hard.
“If possible to win, he has the ambition to do it with the necessary aggression,” said the Austrian. “That requires a lot of courage and his way of driving sometimes leads to collisions.
“But let’s not forget that he won four world championships. As I do with Lewis, you have to accept that (aggression).
“It could easily have been Lewis instead of Sebastian who spun (at Monza). Then the whole grand prix would have been different,” said Wolff.
“In the high tech world of formula one, everything is not decided linearly and rationally, but also with luck, misfortune and coincidence.”