Nasr says Alonso, Vettel and Schumi were once pay drivers

Felipe Nasr has hit back at lingering claims he might be written off as a typical Formula 1 pay driver.

It was said the Brazilian’s arrival at Sauber with his sponsor Banco do Brasil – whose blue and yellow colours now dominate the 2015 livery – helped to save the embattled Swiss team.

But Nasr has also been a standout rookie so far this year, contributing the vast bulk of the team’s points so far and powering Sauber to an unlikely fifth in the championship.

“I have won several championships,” the 22-year-old driver of Arabic descent told the Portuguese edition of Playboy.

“These criticisms (about being a pay driver) represent a mistaken view,” he insisted, “because drivers have been arriving with sponsorship for a long time — Alonso, Vettel, even Schumacher,” he said.