Michael Schumacher hailed Sebastian Vettel’s record-breaking F1 season and said the gulf between his fellow German and his Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber had been ‘shocking’.

Vettel ended the year as the first driver to win nine races in a row in a single season. His total of 13 for the championship equalled Schumacher’s record 2004 haul with Ferrari.

“He won all those races... Mark Webber, he won none. That is pretty shocking,” Schumacher said in a season review.

“I’m glad I’m not his (Vettel’s) team-mate.”

Webber departed Formula One at the end of the season to join Porsche in endurance racing, with Australian compatriot Daniel Ricciardo replacing him.

Schumacher said he was happy for Vettel, the youngest quadruple champion at 26.

“If somebody can break all these records I prefer it to be him than somebody else,” added the German, who left the sport at the end of last season after coming out of retirement for three years with Mercedes.

Mercedes ended last season as overall runners-up to Red Bull, a big improvement on fifth place in 2012, with Germany’s Nico Rosberg and Britain’s Lewis Hamilton both winning races.

Schumacher said he had no regrets about his retirement.

He felt Mercedes, who announced last week that his old friend Ross Brawn was leaving at the end of the year, would be able to launch a real championship challenge in 2014.

“Everything now is there to have the base to fight the championship. And that’s what I think can happen,” he said.