Sebastian Vettel adores F1 legend Michael Schumacher and Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton, but when asked to name a talented F1 driver, the 4-time world champion chose to snub both the drivers.
With 14 world championship titles split equally between them, both Schumacher and Hamilton are undoubtedly the best on the track. Vettel has battled against both drivers in his F1 racing career but he does not think of them as the most talented drivers.
Speaking in the Beyond the Grid podcast, Vettel named Kimi Raikkonen as the driver with exceptional raw talent and the biggest talent that he has come across.
We’ll probably never witness another public image of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel together again #F1 pic.twitter.com/g6siMUD5vE
— Motorsports in the 2000s 🇭🇰🇬🇧 (@CrystalRacing) November 20, 2022
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Kimi Raikkonen is just a natural
Kimi Raikkonen made the most out of the feud between Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in 2007 and won his first and only championship title.
Ever since then, the Iceman spent most of his time in F1 battling in the mid-field. But, Vettel thinks that Raikkonen is so natural that even if there was a discipline to switch cars every day, in 10 days Raikkonen would be lapping everybody else simply because he’s so natural.
The 4-time world champion explained that drivers need to adapt to the car and need some time to get used to it but that was not the case for Raikkonen.
“For him, it’s just… boom,” described Vettel.
Sebastian Vettel reveals Kimi was the best teammate he ever had
Vettel drove his first F1 car in the 2007 season as a replacement for the injured Robert Kubica in BMW Sauber. Soon after that, he moved to Toro Rosso before getting promoted to Red Bull and winning 4 consecutive championship titles between 2010 and 2013.
Vettel partnered with Raikkonen when the German moved to Ferrari in 2015. While his stint at the Scuderia did not prove to be as successful as he had wanted it to be, he found the perfect teammate for four seasons in Raikkonen.
Vettel revealed that he had the best relationship with Raikkonen because he was just so straightforward. In his 4 seasons together, the duo never had any arguments, anything of any sort that would destabilize their relationship.
Even if there was a crash, they would talk about it, fix the problem and maybe even laugh about it.
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