Nobody seems too excited over Vettel winning the WDC

[Raptor22]

He is prodigy of Michael Schumacher. Sebastian has in fact mixed it up quite a bit this year in wheel to wheel fighting. My view on some of those outcomes is somewhat different to the popular media interpretation e.g Instanbul.

HE was alongside Webber yet Webber continued the squeeze. Webber should have ceded the racing line and being behind Vettal it was his duty to keep clear. He did not, and the rest is history. Spoilt child? well, I hold the view that if you have certain values and understanding of the sporting rules and driver code of conduct then you expect others to follow the same. The incident is more due to Vettels naivity and youth thn poor race craft. He expected his team mate to abide by the code of conduct he did not.

Thereafter ,his team mate constantly campaigned to be the teams number 1, something Vettel never requested and to my knowledge, expected. He grew up a bit after that incident.
He bacame more cautious and that affects your aggression in racing. he toned it down so as to not get involved in further incidents. The pressure of being a championship contender is now behind him, his race craft will be a little more self assured and I bet Webber won't be able to try to out politic him going forward....and Webber knows that.

[Dragonfly]

I am a fan of Vettel since his coming to F1. Especially when knowing that he is a discovery of Michael, whose fan I'll be for life.
And ... maybe this is one of the main reasons for dislike against Seb, he was even called "baby Schu" by some.


On the other hand, he's quite different to young Schumacher, much more open, communicative and in good command of English. IMHO Seb went through a personal crisis midseason, being under pressure, making mistakes. But managed to get his act together, to concentrate and give the best of his abilities in the final stages. Yes, I think he matured a lot.

BTW, I personally think that the media and Webber's stirring the pot created the saga about the atmosphere in the team. And it is much much exaggerated. Managing two very competitive drivers is not an easy thing and I'd say RB did quite well.

[ell66]

He is prodigy of Michael Schumacher. Sebastian has in fact mixed it up quite a bit this year in wheel to wheel fighting. My view on some of those outcomes is somewhat different to the popular media interpretation e.g Instanbul.

HE was alongside Webber yet Webber continued the squeeze. Webber should have ceded the racing line and being behind Vettal it was his duty to keep clear. He did not, and the rest is history. Spoilt child? well, I hold the view that if you have certain values and understanding of the sporting rules and driver code of conduct then you expect others to follow the same. The incident is more due to Vettels naivity and youth thn poor race craft. He expected his team mate to abide by the code of conduct he did not.

Thereafter ,his team mate constantly campaigned to be the teams number 1, something Vettel never requested and to my knowledge, expected. He grew up a bit after that incident.
He bacame more cautious and that affects your aggression in racing. he toned it down so as to not get involved in further incidents. The pressure of being a championship contender is now behind him, his race craft will be a little more self assured and I bet Webber won't be able to try to out politic him going forward....and Webber knows that.

nice try, but i dont hink so.
webber initially squeezed him, but then left him just enough room, and it was vettel who moved over to the right causing the crash, so get your facts right.
nice of you to miss out the button incident in spa, and his clumsy attempts at overtaking at silverstone......

[Giblet]

Squeezed or not, Vettel drove into him. He wasn't clear of the car he was trying to pass, much like all the other wings he ran over in 2010.

As for the thread topic, I was far more excited to see Jenson win, and I'm not a fanboy of anyone. He had to suffer a lot of hardship to get it, whereas Vettel didn't.

I would have liked to see him serve more of an apprenticeship in crappier cars, like Alonso and Button did. I think that's the reasons not as many people are as excited.

But then again, I haven't seen Whiteblue. His excitement might make up for all the lack of it here.

[andartop]

It's true that Vettel had the best car by far this year. 15 out of 19 poles? Need anything else be said?
It's also true that some people (including me) are still waiting for him to win a race from midfield, let alone from the back of the grid, as Schumi, Kimi, Alonso and Hamilton, hell, even Rubens, have achieved.
And it's a fact he made quite a few silly mistakes this year, Turkey and Spa being the obvious examples.

However, the guy is 23 years old.
He won his first GP with a car that shouldn't (in theory) be good enough to win a GP.
He arrived in the last two races as the outsider, and claimed back to back poles and race wins.
When it mattered most, he did not crack under pressure.
Best car or not, he did score more points than Alonso, Webber, Hamilton, Button, Massa, Rosberg, Kubica, Schumacher and even Kobayashi!
He won the Formula 1 WDC fair and square, and he got it with a race victory, not a 7th or 5th position (only just).

In my book, these are good enough reasons for anyone to be excited about Vettel! =D>

[Giblet]

All true and I tend to agree, but I really think that people put too much stock in the 2008 Monza win. His teammate at the time, Bourdais, qualified that exact same car 4th, and then put the second fastest lap of the race, behind Kimi, and 1.3 seconds quicker thatn Sebs fastest lap.

That car that day was a monster for whatever reason.

[BreezyRacer]

Giblet, I disagree. That was a hell of a drive in terrible conditions. I wouldn't be surprised if they got the very best engine Ferrari had to give that weekend to get them in the thick of the points battle but nobody ever expected them to pole till Vettel did, and then everyone just walked around saying wait till the race. Well you know the story .. young Vettel came thru the race strong with a victory. Don't discount that win.

In today's environment with a fixed strategy (tires, car regs, and no refuel) and tracks that don't allow for much passing, it's going to be a while before you see anyone come from mid field to win. Occasionally you'll get the early pit stop from a safety car but you cannot count on that and it's not the kind of drive you're looking for anyway. OTOH I love those drives too.

[andrew]

Did you guys see the Abu dahbi grandstands after the race? I mean other than the RedBull, Renault and TR garages, the place was quite torpid; no cheering, no dancing not even any boos and cursing like brazil 2008...

I think the reason is 2 fold. Ferrari are extremely popular in the Middle East and I don't think they care too much for F1. Going by the TV coverage, it looked like there were a lot of spectators there who were there to be seen.

Even on the internets the Vettel WDC threads are just small.. Even Buttons lame WDC got more excitement than this!

Drivers like Webber or Alonso generate greater noise because they are loud mouths(in my humble opinion) and make big and wild statements. Eg. Alonso commenting at the British GP that he will win the title and his comments about only needing podiums etc and Webber with his not bad for a number 2 tripe and moaning about not feeling loved by the team (he should really grow a pair!).

Vettel on the other-hand has been pretty quiet and modest when asked about the championship and has generally behaved (except in heat of the moment type situations) like a professional driver with experience beyond his years.

Basically there is nothing to discuss about Vettel's championship compared to his closest opponents. He won it, great, now lets discuss Webber and Alonso choking is the general tone it would seem.

Another thing to consider is that he there was virtually no controversy with Vettels championship. Last year there was the whole double diffuser thing and a team which (not wanting to wax lyrical too much) rose from the ashes of Honda (who were not the fastest on the grid), the year before it was Glock's sudden loss of adhesion to the tarmac in Brazil, in 2007 it was Raikkonen's unexpected win, 2005 & 2006 was the end of Ferrari runnuing rings round everyone else. All in all, we had a quiet F1 season.

[Giblet]

I'm discounting that win as much as you are discounting the fact that Bourdais also had incredible pace that day. Bourdais stalled on the grid with a technical problem, but what would have happened if he didn't? He was far faster in the race.

I understand that Vettel controlled his pace to stay in front, but he wasn't quick compared to Bourdais. Both set their fastest laps around lap 52, but 1.3 seconds in Bourdais' pocket is an eternity. What would the race have been like if Bourdais hadn't stalled? Vettel might have actually had pressure on him to go quick as the car was capable. At the same time, going only as fast as you need to is also a skill and showed a mature drive.

I'm standing by what I said, the STR flattered him that weekend more than people choose to remember, and as usual, he only seems to win from pole, anything else and he falters and hits others more often than he doesn't. In his final win this year, he almost ran over Hamilton's wing on lap 1, doing his "Schumi chop" even though it hadn't worked for him all year until that point.

I don't think it's in his nature, it's just youthful exuberance but I hope he takes a page from Lewis and starts to get some wins/results on something other than pure open track pace. I saw him mostly falter or run over others when pressured or passing.

These are the reasons that I am still 'meh' on Vettel. I want to see some "Vettel Mettle" so his next championship feels more deserving

The only real adversity he had to challenge was a slower teammate and himself, and he should have won that battle more often outside of qualifying.

EDIT: Andrew, you have already been corrected on this, but Alonso never said he _would_ win the title, and to his credit, he almost did, even though the team didn't believe it at first.

[Giblet]

Another thing to consider is that he there was virtually no controversy with Vettels championship. Last year there was the whole double diffuser thing ....

You do remember that Red Bull had a flexing wing that nobody could figure out, right?

That is so similar to the DDD it's almost not funny.

[vall]

Drivers like Webber or Alonso generate greater noise because they are loud mouths(in my humble opinion) and make big and wild statements. Eg. Alonso commenting at the British GP that he will win the title and his comments about only needing podiums etc and Webber with his not bad for a number 2 tripe and moaning about not feeling loved by the team (he should really grow a pair!).

but ultimately he was right!!! Only podium would have been enough. Problem was he missed ones.

[andrew]

True. With the double diffuser there was the situation with some teams having their version declared legal and others not. The DDD pretty much rumbled on for the whole season. Ferrari were extremely vocal and kept the debate alive, probably fueled by their car being off the pace coupled with their own DDD being declared illegal.

This year with teh flexing front wing,once the Red Bull wing passed the revised FIA load tests the whole thing debate seemed to be forgotten and the controversy died.

[andrew]

Drivers like Webber or Alonso generate greater noise because they are loud mouths(in my humble opinion) and make big and wild statements. Eg. Alonso commenting at the British GP that he will win the title and his comments about only needing podiums etc and Webber with his not bad for a number 2 tripe and moaning about not feeling loved by the team (he should really grow a pair!).

but ultimately he was right!!! Only podium would have been enough. Problem was he missed ones.

I'm not saying that Alonso was wrong in his statement about only needing podium finishes. The point I was making was that Alonso was quite vocal and confident in his chances of becoming champion. Some may say he set himself up for a fall. Vettel on the other hand, if anything, played down his chances.

[andartop]

...I'm standing by what I said, the STR flattered him that weekend more than people choose to remember, and as usual, he only seems to win from pole, anything else and he falters and hits others more often than he doesn't. In his final win this year, he almost ran over Hamilton's wing on lap 1, doing his "Schumi chop" even though it hadn't worked for him all year until that point.

I don't think it's in his nature, it's just youthful exuberance but I hope he takes a page from Lewis and starts to get some wins/results on something other than pure open track pace. I saw him mostly falter or run over others when pressured or passing.

Flattered by the car he may have been, but it was Monza. In the wet. He didn't do any mistakes, got pole, stayed there. That's something.

Hamilton himself did too many mistakes this year, and you're bringing him as an example? Reprimands, more reprimands, pit entry incidents, pit lane incidents, safety car incidents, almost binned it at Spa while leading, Monza and Singapore, Korea and Brazil, lost it behind the safety car in Abu Dhabi. Surely, not all of these to blame him for 100%, but keeps getting surrounded by controversy and "near misses" more often than a role model for smooth and clean driving should.

And we come to the first corner incident between them in Abu Dhabi. Lewis had spent quite a lot of time making sure everybody knew that he wouldn't back off as he had nothing to lose, and that others should be watching for him not the other way around. Sure, fairplay in F1, but if that was not a poor attempt to intimidate I don't know what was. Unfortunately for him, Vettel also had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and when it mattered he went for it. History proved him right. Had he conceded, people would now be criticizing him for having no balls. I say well done!

[lolzi]

In his final win this year, he almost ran over Hamilton's wing on lap 1, doing his "Schumi chop" even though it hadn't worked for him all year until that point.

I agree on everything else in your post, but "Schumi chop"? Why should it be named after him, I remember Senna doing it a lot more than Schumi. And I don't think there was anything wrong with moving over when that much in front. I think Hamilton was to blame for Silverstone and Monza.