Di Resta: 'Vettel won because he had the best car'

[Scott Webber]

Force India's Paul di Resta, a rather reserved figure, has spoken out about his former teammates achievement, claiming Sebastian Vettel won the 2011 championship 'because he had the best car'.

Di Resta, who made his F1 debut at the start of this year, raced against Vettel as teammates in F3 during the 2006 season in equal cars. The scotsman beat Vettel by 11 points, but failed to break into F1 as early as the German, despite being a year older.

In an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, Di Resta made the claim that another driver in the same car would probably have achieved the same - though he doesn't mention Mark Webber's efforts.

"We had the same car, same engine, same tyres [in 2006] and I beat him," said Di Resta.

"I don’t want to diminish Vettel’s achievement, but he won the championship because he had the best car. He did his job, but another driver in the same car would probably have achieved the same results. I hope one day to have the same opportunity."

source

 

[Hampus Andersson]

I agree 100%.

Vettel is a good driver but definitely not on the level of Hamilton and Alonso imo.

 

[Bradley Vanian]

Yes. Best car. That is why Webber did really good as well this season. (Sarcasm)

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Yea he did an awful job when you think about it. Superior car yet he spent most of his time during this season as 4th in the championship.

 

[Péter Bártfai]

Just because 5 years ago he beat him, that doesn't mean anything. I think saying things like this is childish.

 

[James Maskell]

It isn't just the car at all. You have to be Mentally in the zone to do so well back to back all the time. Webber wasn't mentally there this year and neither was Hamilton. Racing drivers have their ups and their downs just like all normal people do.

 

[Fredrik Arbegard]

To win in F1 you need the whole package as it has always been.
Vettel might have the best car as of now but he has also developed a cool head and a winning driving style which he lacked previous season in some races imo.
As for Webber not doing well, I think he needs to get his motivation up a bit. It is hard to do well when your team mate is doing better.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Just because 5 years ago he beat him, that doesn't mean anything. I think saying things like this is childish.

It´s just my opinion on the Vettel matter. I don´t believe he is as good as people like to think.
Usually they bring up the Monza 2008 win.

 

[Markus Neumann]

but another driver in the same car would probably have achieved the same results

Webber didn't.
Vettel was absolutely flawless this season. Yes, his car was better than what everyone else had, yes, it did win him the championship, but a good car alone is not enough to get 14 poles, 11 wins and five second places.

And Di Resta beating Vettel five years ago doesn't mean anything for today.

 

[António da Cunha]

Both, Vettel and Hamilton are over-rated drivers. Webber is mediocre, disguised by a good car. In my view, from the present top teams Button and Alonso are the best drivers.

Paul Di Resta showed a great performance this year and he doesn't seem to be worst than Vettel.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Hamilton is overrated? I thought i had seen it all on forums but i still get amazed up to this day..

 

[Chris Jenkins]

Alonso said it perfectly a few weeks ago when he said that Vettel will only be considered one of the best when he drags a car that's not the quickest on to pole position.
So far he's only managed to put the quickest car on pole, which is easier than putting this year's McLaren or Ferrari on pole.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Most years, the driver with the best car tends to win.

It's intra-team where driver quality matters most, or in those rare times when different teams cars are almost identically matched.

That's not necessarily a comment on Vettel by the way

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Hopefully 2012 will be more competitive between the manufacturers. Like in 07-08.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

I don't think we'll see too much difference until the engine changes in 2014.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

I think we will, the EBD made a huge difference as certain teams had trouble making the most out of it, Ferrari for example.

As soon as they banned it (Silverstone), and as soon as Alonso got the temps up he literally dominated the high speed parts like Becketts Maggotts complex. Think he took as much as 0.7 at one point.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

True, but that was only because the Red Bulls were comprimised by having a car that was build around the blown diffuser and not being able to run it. Ferrari built their car and THEN started developing their EBD as an add-on. So the car ran more efficiently without it.
In 2012, all teams will be developing their cars around the new exhaust layouts and at the moment, Red Bull and McLaren seem to be better at building their cars than Ferrari do.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Mclaren´s car was not built with RBR-style EBD in mind. They hade a different exhaust concept that got dropped in the bin after a while.
They managed to get the car into a fairly competitive state in some races. Ferrari never really quite got on top of their problems but showed that the car itself was a very good one in race pace with Silverstone to prove it.

They had some problems with their own windtunnel which made them ask Toyota to use their state of the art tunnel.
They also said that they went way to conservative for this year and have promised that they will be more aggressive design-wise.

The last few years have been quite affected by certain loopholes.

 

[Michael Brown]

Alonso said it perfectly a few weeks ago when he said that Vettel will only be considered one of the best when he drags a car that's not the quickest on to pole position.
So far he's only managed to put the quickest car on pole, which is easier than putting this year's McLaren or Ferrari on pole.

Agreed. I'll admit Vettel's talented, and that he's been getting the max out of the car, but Alonso has been outperforming the car, getting it on the podium where Vettel probably couldn't.

So Alonso's the best driver on the grid (in my opinion). He's being held back by the car.

 

[Chris Butcher]

Interesting point for you guys - when the blown diffusers were heavily restricted at the British Grand prix, no one could touch Alonso.

Just shows how much of it is the car