Former Ferrari driver Eddie Irvine has played down the achievements of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton during their Formula 1 careers.
The two men are unquestionably the most successful drivers of their generation having won a total of nine championships between them and have raced head-to-head for the title over the past two seasons.
Despite that, the Irishman believes any comparisons between them and the all-time greats are completely unfounded and was particularly dismissive of Vettel’s ability.
“I think Vettel is good if he is at the front and doesn’t have anybody to race,” he said, speaking to the BBC.
“When he is racing is someone, he is focused as much on the other guy as he is on where he is going and inevitably crashes into the other guy, which happens nearly all the time.
“Vettel is a good driver, but as a four-time world champion, I just don’t see it. He is massively overrated, he’s a one-trick pony and Lewis has a much broader talent.”
In fact, initially, Irvine was full of praise for Hamilton.
“I think Lewis is in a different league from all of them,” he claimed. “Lewis is an amazingly talented driver. When he first came to Formula 1 he was fantastic to watch and his overtaking was second to none.
“When you watch Lewis race, he’s focused on racing and Lewis is really focused on getting ahead of the other guy.”
However, while he became only the third driver in history to win five F1 titles last year, and has already surpassed some of Michael Schumacher’s records, Irvine doesn’t put the 34-year-old in the same category as his former teammate.
“He’s not in Michael’s league and I don’t even think he is close. Although he’s racking up lots of wins he’s got the best car, there are more races and the competition is debatable,” he said.
“Michael was on it every day, like [Ayrton] Senna, but Lewis has his off days. If you look over the two years Lewis and [Jenson] Button were together, Button actually outscored him over two years.
“No-one ever did that to Michael, his level of performance was consistently higher.
“He’s probably a better overtaker than Michael was, but for pace and consistency over a whole weekend, over a whole year, I don’t think anyone touches Michael, even Senna.”
Also Read:
- Is opposition to Hamilton/Schumacher comparisons really justified?
- Hamilton showed an ability only seen in Senna & Schumacher in 2018
- Hakkinen: Vettel & Hamilton are both comparable to Schumacher
For those likely reading this and thinking it is a just former driver having a moan, well you’re probably right as Irvine then went on to criticise F1 as a whole.
“I don’t watch it anymore because it bores me,” he admitted. “I watch the cars go around the circuit and I think this is incredibly boring because it is so flat.
“It’s quite synthetic, it’s not raw. It’s too perfect because when you make a mistake you don’t pay a price, the least you should do if you make a mistake is lose a lot of time.
“In the 1950s you got killed if you make a mistake, the 60s you could get killed, the 70s you hurt yourself most of the time and in the 80s you hurt yourself some of the time.
“It’s just got safer and safer, which is a good thing but it’s gone too far.
“It’s just progress, progress, progress until it’s like ‘what have we ended up with here?’, and I think we have ended up with something a bit mushy and not that interesting.”