Former F1 and Ferrari test driver Luciano Burti has slammed the team for their lack of support for Sebastian Vettel. The German was well in the title fight but his season seemed to unravel after crashing into a wall at his home race in July.
Burti, who drove in the sport in 2000 and 2001, says former team boss Jean Todt would not have let Vettel continue to make mistakes after his error at Hockenheim.
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The 43-year-old feels that rather than the driver being solely blamed for his shortcomings in the World Championship race, the Scuderia hierarchy should shoulder some of the responsibility for their failure to provide him with the necessary support to get back on track.
Burti told Motorsport.com: “It was a really tiny mistake, which happens, and he was unlucky it happened in the wrong time and the wrong place – and had a big consequence.
“From then on, I really think that someone like Jean Todt would give him good feedback. I think Vettel felt maybe on his own to fight back from his mistake.
“Once you have that pressure, if you say as a racing driver ‘I cannot make a mistake on the next lap or the next corner’, you make a mistake. Once I think about it, that’s it. “I think that’s what happened to him.
He was on his own and someone like Jean would have made the difference to put him back on track because it’s not normal to see a four-time champion make so many mistakes, and silly mistakes, sometimes.”
