Sebastian Vettel says fans who believe he’s not worthy of having claimed four back-to-back titles because of his current form are “disrespectful”.
The German is struggling to match team-mate Daniel Ricciardo this season so far and is currently nine points adrift in the standings. However he’s had more than his fair share of reliability issues which have certainly hampered him.
“Looking back, I only had one race without problems. That was Malaysia,” he told RTL.
“I think it’s just important to stay true to yourself – if the car is not working, you can be the best driver in the world, but the victories will not come.”
He compared his season to that of Michael Schumacher’s comeback with Mercedes in 2010. The seven-time champion didn’t have much success with the W01, but that shouldn’t discredit what he did in the past.
“I think if you want to make a comparison, I remember when Michael came back with Mercedes and the car was just not on the same level as him, maybe not at the level of his Ferrari.
“But there were many people who said ‘Then Michael was just lucky when he won everything with Ferrari’. But as I said, at some point you have already proved enough to yourself and to the others,” he added.
“Unfortunately in our day and age it is quite normal that you come to such judgements very quickly. I think you have to learn to deal with it.”
He believes it’s important for people to understand what’s happening behind the scenes before making a judgement, but more often than not they’re interested in the ‘non-stories’.
“That’s the way the world is now. In a way it is disrespectful, because these people do not know the background.
“Often they don’t even want to know the background – they want to know how controversial and not-so-great it is, not how wonderful everything is going.”
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