Originally Posted by dj_bytedisaster
Not necessarily. I consider myself a die-hard F1 fan and I wouldn't make that particular distinction. First of all, no matter how much people deny it, personal preference always play into it, when 'listing drivers by awesomeness'. Barely any driver has been exposed to so much vitriol like Vettel over the last two years when the only crime he has committed is winning too much. Therefore many people are driven to say that he's a much lesser driver than Alonso or Hamilton, which is wrong. Each driver has his personal strengths and weaknesses.
Vettel is a very fast and talented driver, but his weakness is that he has developed such a specialized driving style, that he's nigh-on unbeatable when the car fits his preference, but when it doesn't - he struggles.
Alonso and Hamilton could drive the wheels off a wheelie bin and still finish in the points, but that means their driving styles are significantly more aggressive and therefore put more strain on tires an material. Hamilton proved the point in Austin, when he almost lost contact to Vettel on degrading softer tires. He simply had cooked them. Only after switching to the harder compound on which the McLaren had been the fastest car over most the year, he could make his move on Vettel.