Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has thrown his support behind Sebastian Vettel for the remainder of the Formula 1 title battle.
Few people in the paddock know the 31-year-old better than the Briton, who watched his rise with Toro Rosso in 2007-08 and then helped guide him to four consecutive world titles between 2010-13.
However, Horner believes the Vettel we see today is much different to the one he used to work with, pointing to how he has matured in his three years with Ferrari.
“He’s a much more rounded driver,” he was quoted by F1i.com.
“He was still very young when he won those four world championships. Having a few character-building years at Ferrari have made him more rounded.
“He’s very good under pressure. He’s very much a rock within that team. If he gets a sniff of a chance after the summer break, he’ll be very difficult to beat.”
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Vettel’s first team boss in F1 was Mario Theissen, when he deputised for Robert Kubica at the 2007 United States Grand Prix, and the former BMW Sauber chief admitted he too noted how different Sebastian was when he attended the German Grand Prix last month.
“What I see this year, as opposed to the years before, he is much more composed when reflecting on a situation, especially after a bad result,” he told Formula1.com.
“It is something you have to learn during your career, that you can’t control everything. Sometimes you get an unexpected win, sometimes you come to a race track, you’re sure you will dominate the weekend and you go home with zero points.
“That’s what happened to him at Hockenheim,” he added.
“In the years before, if you look at younger drivers, they are devastated in such situations. It looks to me that Sebastian has overcome this period. He takes it as it comes, he understands he can’t control it. The best thing you can do is tick it off and focus on the next one.”
