Former F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve does not believe that Sebastian Vettel has significantly improved as a driver, despite the German dominating the championship, citing his error in Canada as an example of his raw edges.
Vettel has dominated the first half of the 2011 championship for Red Bull, and is now 77 points ahead in the standings after just eight races.The German has enjoyed a strong season, despite developing a somewhat flakey reputation throughout 2010 after a string of mid-season errors nearly ended up costing him the title.
But Villeneuve, who won the 1997 championship for the Williams team, believes that the German has "had it easy" so far this season, and does not believe that he has significantly improved as a driver.
Asked during a Q&A session at this week's Williams-Renault engine deal announcement whether he had been impressed by Vettel in 2011 so far, he replied: "I don't know because he has had it easy.
"He is super-fast. This year his speed has improved, but the one time he had a bit of pressure, in Montreal, he cracked up. He collapsed.
"It was an easy race, it was won, and he just collapsed. So that has not evolved from last year."
He also denied that it was simply an age issue, suggesting that "excuses aren't available" at the top level of motorsport.
"[Age is] is not an excuse, you're allowed to give anyone that's in Formula 1," he rambled confusingly, "At any top level of sport, excuses aren't available. It doesn't matter how old you are, you've got there and you are not young anymore.
"You are an F1 driver or a football player, but once you are at the top level, no excuses are available. You are not allowed to be young, you are supposed to learn fast."
Meanwhile, he also offered some choice opinions on McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, suggesting that it appeared that his abilities had regressed over the last year following a string of recent on-track crashes.
But he did admit that he was happy watching Hamilton drive, saying that he was the "only action" left in the field.
He seems to have gone backwards in his evolution which is a little bit strange, because last year he had calmed down," he mused when asked about Hamilton.
"He was still aggressive but he seemed to me, it looked like that he was thinking a lot more, but this year he left his brain at home."
Villeneuve added: "He's super aggressive, he's fun to watch, I don't want him to change, it's great. He's the only action there is in the race, everybody else uses the DRS and it's boring, it's useless.
"But he actually goes for it, it's great. Once in a while, he should think a little bit because they are not clever moves.
"It's okay to be aggressive, but not if it catches you out as well and he gets caught out himself - that's when it's a mistake."
But he suggested that Hamilton's recent collisions should not have been penalised by driver stewards, suggesting that the errors were simply part of the sport.
"What I don't like about it, apart from it all being artificial and being all about pressing the buttons, is the fact that any time tries something they get punished, they get penalised," he grouched.
"You shouldn't penalise someone for making a mistake, you should penalise them for driving dirty.
"To me it seems like the dirty driving doesn't get penalised, the overly blocking; people cutting chicanes; weaving down the straight, doing really stupid stuff you shouldn't do, but someone trying to overtake at Monaco, why?"
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