'Vettel can be more successful than Schumi'

Red Bull’s 24-year-old German quipped after winning his second title in Japan on Sunday that, even if he was now the sport’s youngest double champion, his great compatriot Schumacher was the youngest to win seven crowns.

Schumacher, now 42, briefly led Sunday’s race for Mercedes and has a record 91 wins under his belt in a career that started in 1991.

No other driver has won more than five championships and only eight have taken more than two since 1950 but Vettel appears certain to join their number before long.

“It is the best performance so far in Formula One, at his age to win two (titles),” Austrian Lauda told Reuters at Suzuka. “To win the first one is always the most difficult because all your career, starting from go-karts all the way up, is years and years of work for this particular day. The second one is easier in a way because there is less pressure.”
Asked whether he could win many more, the man who won championships with Ferrari in 1975 and 1977 and McLaren in 1984 nodded in agreement.

“He has all the circumstances to do it. If the car and his career and where he drives and which car continues in the right direction, then yes.

“If you choose the wrong car or the car you are driving doesn’t work, then you can’t win because its always the combination of the two,” the 62-year-old added.

“But he certainly, theoretically, can win more than Schumacher if he sits at the right time in the right car because he himself is certainly capable of it.”