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Sebastian Vettel Just a Sitting Duck, Unworthy of Being a Four Time F1 Champion – Former Ferrari Driver

Published 11/07/2019, 11:20 AM EST

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Sebastian Vettel’s poor form in the last few races have not won him many fans lately. In fact, former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine was particularly ruthless in his criticism. According to the Irishman, Sebastian Vettel is not a “worthy four-time World Champion”.

Irvine admitted that he was surprised to see Scuderia Ferrari rope in Vettel from Red Bull. However, he also was of the opinion that the German is costing Charles Leclerc a chance of winning a World Championship.

According to him, Ferrari needs to switch focus from Sebastian Vettel to Leclerc in the near future. The 53-year old is convinced that Vettel has repeatedly shown that he is not worthy of the No.1 status in the team.

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“I said at the start of the year, and everyone went a bit crazy, that Sebastian Vettel was a sitting duck,” Irvine told Betway in an interview.

via Imago

“I thought Leclerc had a good chance of beating him because I don’t think Vettel is a worthy four-time World Champion.

“I think he is a very good driver, but he makes a lot of mistakes and I never really thought he was that fast.

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“We are seeing that this year. We saw it with [his season against] Daniel Ricciardo and we’re seeing it again now with Leclerc.

“Vettel got an amazing deal with Ferrari. I was surprised that they took him because it was at a stage where he was getting destroyed.

Irvine revealed that Mattia Binotto was his former engineer during his tenure at Ferrari. The Irishman also praised Binotto, saying that he was a ‘smart guy and super calm’.

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He noted that, going head-to-head, Lewis Hamilton always ‘destroys’ Sebastian Vettel. He also harked back to Charles Leclerc’s move on Hamilton at Monza. Irvine admitted that it was ‘probably illegal but it was so perfectly done’.

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Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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