Sebastian Vettel finally tied it all up last night in a fascinating Japanese Grand Prix. Lets be clear, it’s been a while since there was anything other than mathematical doubt as to who was going to win the drivers titles this year.
It’s been another compelling season of racing and the comfort of Vettel’s championship, won with four races left, had taken little of the drama away.
The winning margin this year is impressive because both the driver and the team cut out the mistakes. Last year he was clearly the quickest, but errors by both parties cost him points on more than one occasion. This year there was none of that, just a team and driver at their very best.
I can think of only two significant errors this year, and that is remarkable. The last lap mistake in Canada that gave Jenson Button an outstanding win, and a spin in Germany, that’s it.
Nine wins and twelve pole positions in fifteen races is impressive. Yes, there were weekends where he was dominant, but there were others where he had to fight for every point and did so. But wait there’s more, he’s the only driver to have finished every race and what’s more finished every race except for Germany on the podium. That’s impressive.
Perhaps his most dominant weekend was Turkey, it was clear from the Friday times that everyone else was looking at second. Team principal Christian Horner was asked after qualifying by one of the press pack if Vettel had any weakness. He replied, “Yes, when he turned up this weekend he had quite a dodgy haircut.”
It was the same story in Australia, Valencia, Belgium, Italy and a couple of others. Monaco was shaping up to be an outstanding fight to the end before a safety car ruined the spectacle.
Hamilton (two wins) and Button (four wins) have produced the only consistent challenge to Red Bull. But it was not enough, Button has been brilliant at times this year, backed by a team who knew they had to outthink Red Bull during the race to give their drivers a chance. Hungary was a great example of how good they could be.
But it was Vettel’s season; baring a collapse of monumental proportions it was clear after Monaco there was only going to be one champion this year. Last season was outstanding, perhaps the most competitive ever and certainly as good as any of the Senna-Prost or Mansell-Piquet battles of the late 80’s and early 90’s.
This year was a driver working at the absolute top of his game; the obvious parallel is fellow German Schumacher at his dominant best. Yes he’s clearly dominant, but that’s a slightly unfair comparison as you feel Vettel is enjoying what he does and appreciating the competition in a way that Schumacher never did.
He’s got four more races to go, four more chances to show how good he can be, and four more opportunities for McLaren to show they are ready to take the fight to Red Bull for 2012.
6 Comments
Nine wins and twelve pole positions in fifteen races is impressive. Yes, there were weekends where he was dominant, but there were others where he had to fight for every point and did so. But wait there’s more, he’s the only driver to have finished every race and what’s more finished every race except for Germany on the podium. That’s impressive.
+1
This really is a really good read I think,
It was clear early that his was vettels year, you think Mclaren or Ferrari can mix it with Red Bull next year?
@NI
I think anything is possible. There is a short closed season, only 9 weeks between the final GP and the start of testing. They will have to challenge Adrian Newey and his design team, Ferrari and McLaren are only slightly off the pace, but it’s a huge challenge to find the next tweak that can give the challengers an advantage.
The really interesting thing right now is finding out Hamiltons problem and If McLaren can make him happy. Button drove better races and out qualified him a few times, that partnership will be interesting.
Hello, I simply wanted to take time to make a comment and say I have really enjoyed reading your site.
Vettel actually make it seem so easy, so dominant and the team so much better. I am looking forward for your next post, and nextyear.