Sir Jackie Stewart has labelled the current crop of Formula One drivers the best in the history of the sport.
Three-times world champion hails current crop of F1 stars
Sir Jackie Stewart has labelled the current crop of Formula One drivers the best in the history of the sport, calling them "a group of extraordinarily skilled people".
The three-times world champion's comments come on the back of an enthralling 2010 season which saw four drivers - Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton - still in title contention at the final race.
In the event, Red Bull driver Vettel pipped Alonso to the crown after winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
"I think it's the best field ever," Stewart told
Autosport.
"Red Bull had a good car this year but right down to the last race there were four drivers battling for the championship, and there were five for most of the season really in contention.
"Up there was a Red Bull, a Ferrari and a McLaren, and a Renault pushing and shoving, so you cannot ask for much better than that. It was a long season and it came down to the very last race. It was close racing too."
With Vettel joining Alonso, Hamilton, Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher as a world champion lining up on the grid, Stewart also explained why he thinks the 2011 season could be even better.
"[Vettel] is a young driver. He is 23 years of age," the 71-year-old Scot said. "I remember when I was 23 that was the age when I started to race racing cars. I was 23, and he is world champion at 23.
"Mark Webber is 34. I know when I was 34, I was a better man than when I was 23, so therefore I think there is a lot more to come from Sebastian.
"Webber is still in there, and [Robert] Kubica could one day be world champion.
"You also have Jenson driving in the smoothest and cleanest way of any driver, and Lewis is probably the best racer of the whole lot - and the best equipped is still Alonso. You have such a group of extraordinarily skilled people.
"And 2010 was a great year, but 2011, because the same people are there with even more experience, I think it is going to be another great year."
Legends
So impressed is Stewart with the current crop of F1 drivers that he brackets them alongside some of the legends he raced against.
"Absolutely [the field is as strong]. I think the animal is exactly the same. I don't think Sebastian Vettel is any different from what Jim Clark was, or Graham Hill was, or Jack Brabham was, or people who have won the world championship more than once," he added.
"These drivers are the same - all the same desire, want, focus, commitment and God-given talent that has been developed to the highest level.
"So they are not different as individuals, but we have a crop of them just now and we have got a little closer unification of the quality of the performance of the cars, so it is going to give us better racing - and I see 2010 was as good as the late 1960s/early 1970s," he added.
