Whitmarsh tips Vettel to hold nerves
Wednesday 27th July 2011
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has dismissed suggestions world championship leader Sebastian Vettel is starting to crack under pressure.
Vettel enjoys a comfortable cushion to Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber in the standings after a dream start to the season but suffered a spin and overshot the final chicane on his way to a scrappy fourth place in last weekend's German Grand Prix.
Vettel trailed home 48 seconds behind race-winner Lewis Hamilton at the Nurburgring, missing out on a podium for the first time in twelve grands prix, but Whitmarsh does not believe the reigning world champion is showing signs of strain.
"He wasn't under that much pressure. He was out of the race [in terms of victory], in my opinion, when he made his mistakes," said Whitmarsh.
"People may characterise it as cracking under pressure, but in fairness I don't think that was the case.
"They were simply mistakes. Drivers make them, so do teams, all human beings.
"So it's not him cracking under pressure, but self-evidently he simply made a couple of mistakes. You could even say he made them at the right time, when he wasn't winning.
"I'd like to have seen some of those mistakes when he was leading a race, but it can also swing the other way.
"He has done a pretty good job so far this year, so I don't think he is cracking."
Although Hamilton cut his personal championship deficit to Vettel to 82 points with victory on Sunday, the German's overall lead in the standings was only reduced to 77 points from 80 after Webber finished third.
It would appear for the title hopes of Hamilton and Webber - as well as Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who is 86 points off the pace - Vettel needs to start finishing out of the points altogether on Sunday afternoons.
But ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, Whitmarsh added: "We can't bring about his failure, all we can do is put pressure on him.
"At the start of the year Sebastian was supreme in his confidence, not making any mistakes whatsoever.
"We just have to concentrate on our own act, improve our performance, reliability, everything we do.
"If that turns out to be good enough to win races then that will be great."
Credit: ESPN STAR (www.espnstar.com)
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