Flavio's Opinion on Vettel

[Diego Lopez]

New world champion Sebastian Vettel is not the best driver in Formula 1,
according to former Renault team boss Flavio Briatore. "Vettel is definitely
good," said the Italian. "But he won because he best managed his phenomenal car.
He is not the best. If there was a race where they were all in the same car,
Vettel would be behind Fernando Alonso and also Lewis Hamilton. On a qualifying
lap, I see Vettel in pole position, then Hamilton and Alonso third."

Couldnt agree more. Plus this picture made my top 10 of all time :tongue:

 

[Luke McVicar]

I don't think vettel is the best racer, maybe in clear air, but if last year showed us anything when in the pack he's vunrable, the other two haven't had the advantage of having the absolute fastest car over a seasons length.

 

[Péter Bártfai]

Of course he says that, Alonso is his "son", and Hamilton was pretty much equal to Alonso in 2007, so he could add another driver to the best drivers list.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

It depends on whether he's referring to race pace, pace in practice sessions or pace in qualifying.
All 3 would have different rankings.

 

[Adam Eggbeer]

As stated in the article, he mentioned what order they would be in the race, and what order they would be in qualifying :wink:

It's typical Briatore as well to not include Jenson in that as I find him better during a race than Lewis, qualifying though it is the other way round.

 

[Georgios Apostolopoulos]

Αs the years pass we will see how much good is Vettel. He drives the best catr but Webber drives the same one too and his results are dissapointing. Ifthe next year Ferrari and McLaren make a better car we will see a very good championship. I want to see Schumi in Ferrari again for a last time or a very competitive Mercedes GP, this year he's equal with Rosberg and next year despite his years i believe that he will be much better than Nico!

 

[Kyle Puttifer]

Heil der Fuehrer.
As for Briatore, I can't believe that he thinks his opinion is relevant. He has nothing to do with F1 anymore AFAIK, and rightly so.

 

[Diego Lopez]

Is Flavio like Webbers manager still? think he was last year. Plus he looks like lost some weight. he was relly fat when i saw him on the Top Gear episode with C. Horner, Berni and Flavio taken on some slow Renaults around the Monaco Track this year.

 

[Ross Balfour]

He's just saying that to get himself back into a newspaper headline - Vettel is the best driver in the world; there are very few that can argue against that with fact.

 

[TheHemps]

Got bored if his football club then. Now he's trying to wing his way back into F1. God I dislike this man

 

[Diego Lopez]

oh no he is not. He will be best in the world if he can beat Schumis record, then the world will be ready.

 

[vohdoun]

Got bored if his football club then. Now he's trying to wing his way back into F1. God I dislike this man

This man shouldn't even be allowed in headlines, considering he's a cheat.

 

[Diego Lopez]

what team isnt a cheat or was a cheat -.-'.

 

[Mario Knezevic]

Gotta love people not speaking their mind rather just jumping on the bandwagon. Again, stop being so biased. So what after Singapore 2008.? Red Bull have ordered Webber twice in one season not to overtake Vettel and nobody is saying anything about that. Give me a break.

Anyway, I do agree with Flavio. I gotta give it to Vettel for managing that car. It was and still is the best car out there but it's the driver who's driving and controling it. But still, Vettel IS NOT the best driver in the world just cause he's the World Champion. It is easy to start 1st, have clean air (which suits the car the best) and then just cruising the track. I'm just now waiting for hater comments. But you know.. HATERS GONNA HATE.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

Whilst I definitely agree with you about Vettel, there's no way you can compare the Singapore/crashgate incident to Red Bull asking Webber not to overtake Vettel.

Crashgate was a pre-planned race-fixing strategy. A deliberate and dangerous idea to purposely crash a car and bring the safety car out on a specific lap with the intention of altering the race result.
It was blatant cheating.

Red Bull telling Webber to 'maintain a gap' isn't, as there's nothing in the rules which says you can't do it this year.

 

[Kevin Ascher]

As long as Formula One exists, there will be people saying the World Champion is not the best driver, it is his car that makes him so fast.
But F1 is about the drivers AND about the cars.
So you will never really know.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

Until you get a spec series, the question will never be answered.

 

[Ramon Alonso]

Can't go wrong with any of those three, any way you put them. Flavio is a goon.

 

[Ryan Soucy]

That pic of Flavio was taken when he was blessing the Pope at the Vatican...

I will never discount a driver for winning the championship if they have the best car. That is ALWAYS the case. You CAN say unequivocally that Vettel is better than Webber. Personally, I'd rather have Alonso and Hamilton, with Jenson very close in the mix.

Thank you Flav for the fodder!