“Lewis is still a great driver; it is just for some reason not happening
for him. A driver has to be at ease with himself and his surroundings.”
Then, with one eye no doubt on Hamilton’s battle for honours with McLaren team
mate Jenson Button, who currently leads the intra-team contest by nine
points, Horner added: “But while you can sense frustration with Lewis,
with Jenson you can sense someone at ease with himself — and his driving
reflects that.”
If such observations are merely statements of the obvious – and hardly
constitute what one would call antagonistic – they are also a measure of
Horner’s confidence at the moment.
He would be unlikely to cast doubts on Hamilton’s form if he felt he was in
any way a threat to his man. How embarrassing would it be if Hamilton then
caught and overhauled Vettel? With a gap of 126 points between them, there
is no chance of that happening.
Instead, Horner appears happy to heap yet more pressure on Vettel’s young
shoulders, confident in the expectation that he can cope.
Comparing the 24 year-old’s current run of form to Schumacher in his prime,
Horner predicted he would be going all out once again this weekend rather
than sitting back and picking up the safe points.
“It’s not in his psyche to back off,” Horner said. “When you do, that’s
when you start to make mistakes.
“So his approach will be to go into the weekend trying to win. If it’s
second, third or fourth, we will take that, but we are going into every race
trying to get maximum points.”
“Sebastian has evolved as a driver and young man,” Horner added. “We
forget he is 24 and how relatively few grands prix he has driven. But he has
come into this year with more experience, learning a lot from last year’s
campaign.
“Not since Michael Schumacher has a driver come close to that sort of winning
streak, certainly none from Vettel’s generation.”