Former Formula One driver John Watson has called Sebastian Vettel "amazing", with the German having secured a second consecutive title in 2011, but he also suggested that the German's main rivals could bounce back in 2012.
Vettel became the youngest ever double world champion with his 2011 success, which came after he won 11 of the 19 races throughout the season.
The German added his dominant 2011 crown to his last-gasp success in 2010, and is the clear favourite to secure a third successive title in 2012.
And Watson has said that he finds Vettel's rise to prominence at such a young age to be "amazing".
"At the age that Sebastian is, he's won two world championships, I hadn't yet driven a Formula One car," Watson gushed at Sky Sports on Monday.
"The man, you could almost call him a boy, he's just amazing, his ability in the cockpit."
He went on: "He has the potential to go into 2012 [and] make it three in a row, assuming that Red Bull provide him with the equipment.
"I think they are going to be a very difficult team to knock off their winning perch, so Vettel you have to say is already a great and he's going to look even better probably in ten years time."
But he also backed Red Bull's rivals, both McLaren and Ferrari, to make a better fist of challenging the caffeinated squad in 2012.
"The thing that McLaren have got is an enormous amount of experience, a huge infrastructure and the capacity to change a car very rapidly which they have had to do [the last three years]," he rambled.
"That's something you can't just go out and buy off the shelf; it's something which has evolved over many, many years.
"They didn't set out to come up with a concept which was not necessarily ideal, but they went down a route which the believed was the way to go."
On Ferrari, he added: "They've now got a very senior former McLaren technical engineer in Pat Fry.
"So Ferrari are consolidating and trying to strengthen the aerodynamic and mechanical side of the operation and it's about getting all the right people, at the right time in a team."
He went on: "[Fernando] Alonso is a driver capable of winning another world championship if not more, and given the opportunity, given the car, I would say he would be the biggest threat to Sebastian Vettel.
"But it's all going to come down to if Ferrari have provided Alonso and the Italian nation a car to challenge Red Bull and McLaren."
And he also backed the changes to the rules for 2011 that had allowed for more action on the race track.
The introduction of Pirelli's highly-degrading tyres and DRS wings saw overtaking and action increase dramatically last year, and while Watson suggested it wasn't 'pure' overtaking, he said it had still been entertaining.
"[The new rules] provided a lot of overtaking," he said regarding the 2011 changes.
"Not necessarily what I would call motor racing, but it provided a lot of entertainment and for the audience they saw racing cars doing something they hadn't seen them do in quite a while and that was passing one another."
The FIA has confirmed that DRS wings will remain in the sport for 2012, while Pirelli have also promised to bring in even more aggressive tyre choices.
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