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Lauda: Absurd to question Vettel's ability as a driver

Lauda: "Absurd" to question Vettel's ability as a driver

20-12-2018 15:12
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

After the Italian media have started calling Sebastian Vettel's seat at Ferrari into question, Niki Lauda has come out to defend the German, as the three-time champion thinks it's "absurd" to doubt Vettel's ability.

Vettel really had a season of two halves. It started brilliantly for the 31-year-old, winning the first two races of the season and looking like the strongest driver in the field overall. His lead slipped away after the halfway point of the season, though, with Lewis Hamilton pulling off an incredible string of results in the business end of the season.

As Vettel went further behind, he also grew more desperate, and that resulted in the German making mistakes. A lot of them. Hamilton eventually won his fifth title, and Vettel is still stuck on four (which is an absurd thing to say, now that we think of it).

"He has had moments of discouragement, we know, but it would be absurd to question him," Lauda countered in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.

"He will recover, a champion doesn't forget how to drive. He'll come back strong as ever and he'll still be Hamilton's rival in 2019."

Lauda, a three-time champion himself, also revealed that Vettel had written him a letter while he was in the hospital in Vienna after his collapse during the summer break. The Austrian was very touched by this gesture.

"The letter written by Sebastian, in his own writing, was a great pleasure for me, [it was] full of fine words and affectionate considerations," he revealed.

"I didn't expect it, usually drivers don't do these things, they just drive. But he's a good person."