Sir Jackie Stewart is confident Sebastian Vettel will add many more titles to his collection following his maiden championship triumph this season.
Sir Jackie Stewart is confident Sebastian Vettel will add many more titles to his collection following his maiden championship triumph this season.
And that view is backed up by Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, who has warned his team's rivals his 23-year-old star will only get better.
Vettel came through to beat teammate Mark Webber and rival Fernando Alonso to clinch victory in the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi to make him the youngest champion in F1 history. And three-time winner Stewart believes it is just the start for Vettel, who only has three years' F1 experience.
"Sebastian Vettel will certainly be a multiple world champion," said Stewart, who was speaking at the British Racing Drivers' Club lunch.
"He is hugely talented, has great ability and magnificent focus. We know that because in order to win it this year he had to win the last race. He was fortunate that people like Alonso didn't get higher up in the standings before the last few races but he is a winner and we will definitely see more from him."
Initial testing has led to the suggestion former world champions Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will give Horner's outfit a more rigorous test next year in their much-improved McLaren.
The Red Bull team principal is confident Vettel will rise to the challenge though and has already set his sights on winning the 2011 title.
"Sebastian will only continue to get better," said Horner.
"He is still very young, he is still young and learning. He is immensely fast, very intelligent and he has a lot of years ahead of him.
"Next year we want to win the drivers' championship again," the Englishman added. "That is obviously the target but we won't under-estimate our rivals at McLaren or Ferrari.
"There will be a few challenges with the new regulations but we'll put the lessons we learned this year into good practice."
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