Sebastian Vettel defends Max Verstappen against claims his defeat was ‘good’ for F1

With Max Verstappen’s record-breaking run labelled a “Wikipedia” stat by Toto Wolff, Sebastian Vettel says Formula 1 fans should consider themselves “lucky” to be watching history in the making.

This year’s championship has been dominated by Red Bull, who up until Singapore, had won every single grand prix with Verstappen taking 12 of those 14 wins, including a run of 10 in a row.

The latter was a record as the Dutchman beat Vettel’s previous streak of nine, but it was downplayed by Wolff who called it nothing more than a “Wikipedia” stat that no one would read.

Sebastian Vettel: You can’t give Max Verstappen enough credit

The 25-year-old’s run has since come to an end after a miserable weekend in Singapore ended with a P5 finish.

Verstappen hit back at those saying his defeat was good for the sport, the driver telling The Race: “For me, it was just we got beaten, in a very clear way.I don’t think about what is good for Formula 1.

“I don’t think it’s necessarily bad what was happening to Formula 1 because we were just better than everyone else. And if people can’t appreciate that, then you’re not a real fan.”

Vettel agrees that Verstappen deserves more respect for what he has achieved with Red Bull this season.

“I think people don’t like watching the same driver win,” he said at the launch of his ‘Buzzin’ Corner’ biodiversity project at Turn 2 at Suzuka.

“There’s Max today. There was Lewis. There was myself. There was Mika [Hakkinen] at the time, and there was Michael [Schumacher] obviously, throughout a long time.

“So, I think it’s part of the sport. But it’s really you should be lucky that you’re able to witness history in the making. And what Max pulled off this year is amazing.

“His car is amazing, but even more so it’s his efforts. He didn’t do a mistake, so you can’t give him enough credit.”

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Will Vettel ever again race against Verstappen in Formula 1?

Last season Vettel said goodbye to Formula 1, the driver hanging up his helmet to focus on his family and his environmental campaigns.

Of late, though, the topic of him returning to the grid has been coming up a lot with the German having previously said never say never.

Asked about it again in Japan, he said: “Not for now. I mean, I’ve enjoyed this project.

“It is obviously a small project, but I’ve enjoyed my time so far this year, and had lots of ideas, and lots of things that I read up on.

“F1 was the centre to my life for so long, but once you step out, you realise even more how big the rest of the world is, and how small in a way F1 is.

“But not to take any excitement from the sport: it’s an amazing sport and am amazing feeling to drive those cars. So yes, of course, I do miss that. But I also feel at some point it’s probably time for all of us to move on.”

Vettel’s bee project, his latest environmental campaign, saw all the drivers head over to Turn 2 at Suzuka –Buzzin’ Corner– on Thursday where they had the chance to paint their own bee hotels.

Asked if this was his calling in life, the four-time World Champion replied: “Maybe I’m still waiting for my calling, but it’s definitely something that’s very close to my heart and very important to me,.

“It’s not my calling, I think it should be, in a way, everybody’s calling because rather than talking about insects and forms of life, you can bring it back to talking about us because we all like to eat. And who’s pollinating plants?

“It’s all sorts of insects, and if they disappear because we are losing biodiversity fast, we are in the middle of a mass extinction with losing species that we probably haven’t understood yet.

“So, if that decline continues, then basically we will disappear from this planet. And that would be a shame. So, it’s not my calling. It should be all our calling.”

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