Villeneuve says 'crazy' to expect Vettel to quit F1
May 31 - Jacques Villeneuve says the "craziest question" he is ever asked is why Formula 1 drivers do not instantly decide to quit once their performance starts to slide.
The 1997 world champion admits it has been "sad" to watch quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel continue to struggle after switching from Ferrari to Aston Martin.
But then Vettel had a good weekend at Monaco.
"You don't do well at Monaco if you don't still have the fire in you," Villeneuve told motorsport-magazin.com.
"He made the difference there," the French Canadian added. "The car isn't what they expected. The old Mercedes doesn't work with the new rules and as a team they can't develop it."
Some believe German Vettel, 33, should have retired instead of racing on in 2021, but Villeneuve dismisses that notion out of hand.
"Why? He's in Formula 1, making a lot of money. It doesn't matter that he's a four-time world champion.
"People always say 'Oh he's not winning, he should step down'. But it's a real-life job too. It's fun to race, but it's also a job with which you pay for your children's education.
"So if you can still drive in Formula 1, be something like competitive, have fun driving a car and make millions in the process, why should you step down if you're not scared of dying or something?
"It's always the craziest question I'm asked," said Villeneuve.
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Seb showed in Monaco that he still has the ability it was always going to take a couple races to get up to speed look at other drivers joining new teams perrz ricciardo have struggled too Seb is a champion and he will be at the top again
Live Seb, but he peaked already. Alonso too. Sorry guys, thats just life.
Even if that's true that Seb reached his peak dosen't mean he can't still be right up their fighting for championships again Monaco showed that Seb still has great pace he was matching Verstappen when Seb has had a car he likes he can still win races he's not going to this year because the car is slow but if he has a car that can win he will
I don't believe that Seb has peaked any more than Helio Castro Neves had peaked before this years Indy 500. His driving style has developed as it must with all drivers over time and he has never had a dominate package even when he was at Red Bull as Mercedes has enjoyed for the last 6 years. If Aston Martin develop a competitive package we will see if Seb has fallen off in ability.
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