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Former drivers advise Vettel to calm down

ESPNF1 Staff
August 31, 2010 « Whitmarsh wants return to full in-season testing | »
David Coulthard acts as an advisor to Sebastian Vettel © Sutton Images
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Former F1 drivers Niki Lauda and David Coulthard have warned Sebastian Vettel that he now needs to take a more cautious approach to racing if he is to have any chance in the drivers' championship.

A spate of accidents resulting from impetuous moves have bighted Vettel's season although the young German has proved supreme in qualifying.

"You're an absolute super-talent but you've taken excessive risks," Lauda said of Vettel in Bild newspaper. "One more mistake and your world championship will be over. Then you will have to drive for your team-mate, which would be the ultimate penalty.

"The pressure can be paralysing, because everyone expects you to be in front and everything else is a disappointment."

Coulthard, who still holds an advisory role at Red Bull, put Vettel's mistakes down to the exuberance of youth.

"I see a young man who is suffering from his first spell of growing pains," Coulthard told the Telegraph. "I am not excusing them [the mistakes] - as I have said before, F1 is no finishing school - I'm just saying they are understandable."

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