Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel is known to be a big admirer of legendary F1 driver Michael Schumacher, but even he doesn’t believe he is the greatest to have graced the sport.
Drivers are often divided with respect to their favourites and the best to have raced in the sport.
Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton often make it to this discussion, and it is often a hotly contested debate.
With Vettel often speaking about how he has grown up idolising Schumacher, F1 fans may have felt that the iconic racer would be the natural pick for the four-time world champion.
However, when Vettel was directly asked by a fan about who he thought was the greatest driver to have featured in F1, Vettel may have taken quite a few by surprise with his answer.
Vettel picked five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio as the most established driver he has ever seen.
Vettel was rooting for Verstappen to beat Hamilton last year
Fangio famously won all his five titles in successive years back in the 1950s.
Interestingly, he managed an astonishing 24 race wins in just 54 entries.
“I’m a fan of Michael [Schumacher], but Fangio [Juan Manuel Fangio] is a little better… the best, the best, the king,” Vettel said.
Previously, Vettel had spoken about how Schumacher has always been his hero.
When Hamilton was on the brink of breaking his world record of seven world championships, Vettel had spoken about how he was hoping the record would stay with the German maestro.
“Michael is my hero,” Vettel said.
“For that reason I probably don’t want Lewis to win but the truth is, they have both had a strong season, they are going into the last race with the opportunity to win the championship because they both deserve it.
“In a way, I’d be happy if Michael’s record still stands but even if Lewis wins, to me Michael is still the greatest.
“Lewis can win one more, two more, three more, five more championships but it doesn’t change anything for me and I get along with Lewis.
“So the gut says I want Max to win just to keep the record alive but my head is clear in terms of ‘let the best man win’.”