Helmut Marko defends Sebastian Vettel and hits out at Stewart criticism. Helmut Marko has hit out at Formula 1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart.

Scuderia Ferrari German driver Sebastian Vettel looked to be heading for his fifth title after a strong start to the season but his challenge unravelled as the campaign wore on and Lewis Hamilton was eventually crowned champion at the Mexican Grand Prix. The German endured a difficult season as he came in for criticism for on-track mistakes but he remains determined to help Ferrari end their wait for a drivers’ championship, as Dr Helmut Marko has hit out at Formula 1 legend Sir Jackie Stewart for comments made about Sebastian Vettel.

Sir Jackie Stewart suggested that Vettel’s title loss this year, as a result of driver errors, indicates the Scuderia Ferrari driver is past his prime: “Vettel’s mistakes were not about mental weakness,” Helmut Marko, the Red Bull driver manager who discovered the German, told Auto Bild – “It was bad lack. In all of those duels, the other driver could easily have been the one who spun. Sebastian did not try anything risky and to claim that he is past his zenith at the age of 30 is just nonsense,” Marko said – “A four time world champion doesn’t forget how to drive. Sebastian will come back for sure. It would be a huge mistake to write him off. It’s like Max Verstappen, who was criticised early this season and came back stronger than ever.” – Helmut Marko concluded, as reported by Auto Bild earlier this week.

“I know my job and I know my role and I don’t think it will change next year in terms of what I have to do. Certainly there is a lot of stuff that happened this year and we will be able to, as a team and as an individual, be able to learn from it and take it forward and raise the bar next year. Obviously along the way something went wrong and we need to learn from it, something went wrong and we didn’t go and develop in the right direction. So clearly we missed something and not because something was on purpose by default set wrong. So it’s up to us to find a fix for it and make sure it doesn’t happen again, but it’s not so simple to find and fix it as it sounds.” – Sebastian Vettel recently said.