It was inevitable from the moment the season started Sebastian Vettel would claim his fourth consecutive world championship in the
far superior Red Bull. Well I get the impression that is what some people would
have you believe.
However, Vettel has been head and shoulders above everyone
else this season. Year on year since he came into Formula 1 in 2007 he has been
driving better. It’s an often used cliché that critics spout about top sportsmen
that they learn from their mistakes when what you actually get is that they
make them perhaps slightly less often but they still make them.
Fernando Alonso for example still gets rattled when it seems
like his team isn’t 100% behind him, Michael Schumacher still made basic errors
on occasion even in his first career. At the time of writing and obviously
subject to change as his career progresses, Vettel just seems to iron out
any imperfections and won’t make the same mistakes again.
There were a number of errors in his first campaign for Red
Bull in 2009. In 2010 when he won his first world championship there were
slightly less, but he let Mark Webber get to him and his impetuousness in
Turkey caused both Red Bull’s to crash. Now the Australian is well under
control and when a fight does break out he remains in complete control.
The controversial Malaysian multi21 team order goes to prove
that. It of course shows he is still learning to keep some of his racing emotions
in check, but as he admitted after he knew what he was doing. He was faster so
he passed him fairly cleanly. Yes, perhaps he shouldn’t have but it finally
revealed that utter ruthless streak that all great sportsmen possess. It’s compromised
his popularity with the motorsport fans despite him being a likeable
personality, but that’s something he’ll get over and anyway in India he got a great reception when he won the title.
No, this showed he was prepared to do anything to win and
this is why he is dominating the sport right now. Last year Alonso showed that
when in a slower car you can still fight for the title. Vettel learnt from this
and was just as consistent in the first half of the season as Alonso had been
in 2012. He added yet another weapon to his arsenal. It was impressive that he
never finished lower than fourth in a car that could not use its full potential
due to the tyres while his win in Germany was beautiful as he held off the
faster Lotus’ with some great defensive driving.
When he couldn’t get the win, he did the most the car and
Pirelli’s could do. It was a lot more equal before the tyre construction was
changed for Hungary but yet Vettel still held a healthy lead in the championship.
Under the apparent hope of a proper fight for glory it went unnoticed that even
in a car hamstrung by its tyres, Vettel was quietly dominating the season. He
hasn’t gone more than two races without a win this year.
At this point there were hopes of a four way title fight but
the fact that even in a sometimes struggling machine he was still up there
fighting was cause for concern for his rivals, as at this time he was still
dominating Mark Webber, albeit someone who knew he was leaving Formula 1 and
was perhaps demotivated.
In previous years when the car hasn’t been at its best
Webber has matched or often beaten Vettel, but not this year. Vettel has been
on top form throughout, and when Red Bull came on song properly with a few
modifications for Belgium onwards, then he flew. He was unstoppable. His drive
in Singapore was just breath taking as he finished over half a minute ahead
even with a safety car intervention.
Yes, since the summer break Red Bull have had a car that is
so far above the rest of the field it’s half way to the moon. But I believe
only one driver at the moment has the ability to exploit a car to its full
potential and that’s Vettel. While Alonso and Kimi sometimes struggle with
qualifying and Lewis Hamilton can be prone to lapses in concentration over a
race weekend, Vettel doesn’t seem to suffer with these things. He’s always on
it, in qualifying, in the race. When the team ask him to alter his driving
style such as for the blown diffuser, he can do it, and do it quickly.
This season he has been on another level. Any doubts about
whether he should be labelled with the greats of this sport should be firmly
put to bed. Admittedly it would have been nice to see Kimi Raikkonen or another
renowned top driver paired with him next season or for him to eventually go to
another team, but those things can still happen but even if it doesn’t it
should take nothing away from him. Webber is a fantastic driver and for him to
be so comprehensively beaten says it all about how well Vettel is driving.
Sebastian Vettel is 2013 world champion and quite frankly no
one else has come close to his level of performance; he is a richly deserving
four time world champion. And at only 26 years of age, it’s be of some concern
to his rivals that he’s only going to get better.
all photo's taken from autosport.com
No comments:
Post a Comment