Vettel pays tribute to the sport's greats

02/07/2012

Mat Coch writes:

Sebastian Vettel endeared himself to Formula One's older generation when asked if success is a measure of greatness.

Speaking to the media at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, an event which pays homage to motor sport history, the sport's youngest double world champion - - seen here with Jenson Button, Marc Gene and Giedo Van der Garde - was quick to point to the sport's history when asked if success could be defined as greatness.

"The success is a big part of it," he said. "If you look at great names from the past, drivers like Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Jackie Stewart... they all won a lot of titles.

"But there are other names that stay in your head and stay around because they had something extra. They were special."

"All F1 drivers are very quick, but those guys had something extra, something maybe the people loved, he was very entertaining, it was very special to watch him driving the car.

"There are plenty of other characters who maybe didn't win the title but are still people's heroes and rightly so.

"You had a lot of successful and popular drivers, people like Jim Clark, people will never forget drivers like him."