Sebastian Vettel has "a devotion" that Lewis Hamilton lacks when it comes to working closely with his engineers, according to the world champion's former Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg. Rosberg battled Hamilton for F1 dominance for three seasons between 2014-2016, retiring after he was finally crowned world champion.
Vettel has long had a reputation for taking a great interest in the setup of his car and spending lots of time in the garage on grand prix weekends.
Rosberg claims that the same cannot be said of Hamilton, although the Briton is generally quick to credit his team for the work they have done to assist his four drivers' championship wins in the last five years.
"Vettel is superior in terms of dedication to work, he works closely with the engineers," Rosberg told Autosprint. "It is a devotion that Hamilton does not have."
Vettel suffered an error-strewn 2018 as Hamilton once again scaled the heights to win his fifth drivers' title.
Rosberg says all is not lot for the Ferrari man, explaining how he bounced back from a similar campaign to taste glory in 2016.
He added: "I do not know exactly what happened to him but this is sport sometimes it seems everything is going in the right direction, then you just need one mistake to bring you down, you lose confidence and everything goes wrong.
"The same thing happened to me against Hamilton in 2015.
"With Lewis I needed to change my attitude, I decided that I had to be the one to lead the game. Lewis always tends to impose his rules but I took control so as not to allow him to find the motivation. And I won."