Sebastian Vettel 'became just an ordinary racing driver' in his last year at Red Bull and never recovered, feels F1 analyst

Sebastian Vettel became just an ordinary racing driver in his last season at Red Bull and never truly recovered from that. This is the view of F1 analyst Peter Windsor as he talked about the German on his Twitch channel. Peter Windsor did not hold a high opinion of Sebastian Vettel as he was questioned, to sum up the German's career.

The veteran F1 analyst remarked that Vettel's ability in turning the corner into a V-shaped one was brilliant and unmatched. However, he also said that once the rear grip provided by Red Bull was not there, Sebastian Vettel turned into an ordinary driver and was exposed by Daniel Ricciardo. He said,

"I always thought Vettel was a very reflexy, very fast, very well-balanced driver who, even in his testing for Sauber days, was nothing other than the ultimate exponent of turning the corner into a V shape. And when he couldn’t do that because of the geography of the corner, he was about the same as the average [driver], but when he could do it on a particular type of corner, he was brilliant and had that ability to do it."

He added:

“And he had that at Red Bull, when he had that amazing grip at the rear, blown diffuser and everything else. When that went away in the regulations in his last year at Red Bull, he became just an ordinary racing driver and actually struggled against Daniel Ricciardo. It was obvious then that that’s how he was exposed."

Sebastian Vettel never got any better!

According to Windsor, after a bad season at Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel did not do any soul-searching or admit that there was something wrong with his performance. He simply packed his bags and went to Ferrari and never improved as a driver. Windsor said:

“He didn’t say at the end of that year, or during that year, ‘wow, I’m in trouble here. When I don’t have a great back end, I need to start to be able to play with it a bit more and do more with the front, get the front to work.’"

He added:

“[There were] all sorts of things he could have done but he didn’t do any of that. He just signed off and went to Ferrari and arrived as the four-time World Champion who was greeted with a lot of money and a lot of fan adulation. And he never got any better, he was still the same driver. That’s the Sebastian Vettel story.”

Vettel retired last year from F1 as a 4-time world champion, but these remarks do come as a surprise for a driver who was on top of the sport at Red Bull and very competitive in the first phase of his Ferrari stint.