Sebastian Vettel keeps dominating in qualifying, but if everyone had the same car, would Vettel continue to dominate qualifying? Webber is no slouch when it comes to qualifying and Vettel has taken him to the cleaners since becoming his teammate in 2009. Interestingly enough Vettel fared better against Mark Webber in 2009 than he did against Bourdais (Don't forget that Bourdais then got thrashed by rookie Buemi). Not only that, but Mark Webber was known for being a qualifying specialist, so perhaps the change from grooved tyres to slicks hindered Webber or helped Vettel, or perhaps it was because Vettel had improved with more experience. Is there something benefitting Vettel or making things particularly difficult for Webber? Perhaps there are other drivers on the grid who would beat him most of the time if they had the same car. Lewis Hamilton is particularly strong in qualifying and has never been beaten by any of his teammates in this respect. His driving style and outright aggression ensure that qualifying remains one of Hamilton's stronger points. Perhaps if Vettel was in the same car, Hamilton would be the quicker driver. Alonso is also consistently strong in qualifying and has destroyed teammates who were supposed to be good qualifiers. A lot of the time, he rarely has the car to challenge for pole position, so his strong performances against his teammates often go unnoticed by many - The same can be said for Nico Rosberg. It's early days Paul Di Resta is doing a fantastic job in qualifying against a highly regarded teammate. Di Resta beat Vettel in F3 so you have to wonder if he would do the same to Vettel if they had the same F1 car. Vettel's qualifying record: - Vettel 0-1 Heidfeld (2007) - Vettel 3-4 Liuzzzi (owned!) - Vettel 13-5 Bourdais (2008) - Vettel 15-3 Webber (2009) - Vettel 12-7 Webber (2010) - Vettel 11-3 Webber (2011) Is Vettel the best driver at qualifying?
Yes, i believe he is! Yes he got narrowly outqualified by Liuzi in 07 but remember this was his first season and Liuzzi already had a few seasons under his belt!
So Seb gets his first real drive in F1, and gets 7 races towards the end and he beat an experienced driver 3 times who had been there from the start. No wonder he got the drive next season while Luizzi didn't... Owned my arse... F3 is F3, not F1. Lets not forget about that post I put up a few months back saying how screwed up the rules became after Lewis left, so to stop the dominant teams running away. Seb was also the only man to win back to back at Nurburgring and went from last place to 2nd at Zandvoort. And not to forget that Vettel was doing other series at the time and had his hand injured by debri, which is why he shows off that finger so much cause it could of ended his racing career.
Like Schumacher when he was in his prime, Vettel seems to be able to get a pole position out of the bag when needed and when it seemed out of reach. If he was an average qualifier then I don;t see that he couldhave made up the positions in a lot of the races as he has led from the front more often than not and had to fend off a lot of challenges during teh race whenit seems others have had potentially quicker cars. He has gone up massively in my opinon this year.
Vettel is certainly a good qualifier but it is hard to judge just how good he is because he is driving the RB7 so I think the only way we will really know is if another driver such as Hamilton, Alonso or maybe even Rosberg is in the same car as him, or the Ferrari and/or Mclaren become on the same level as the Red Bull. That leaves Mark Webber as the only person you can really compare Vettel against. Webber was/is a very good qualifier but Vettel has easily bested him so is that because Vettel is an amazing qualfier or is Webber is a similar category as Button where on the grooved tyres they were very good qualifiers and could get their cars higher up the grid than they ought to be but with the change to slick tyres qualifying needed different skills and they could not reach the same level of performance. Hard to say really, I suppose time will tell at some stage.
Its hard to say because he has never had great team mates in F1, maybe when he joins Alonso in Ferrari one day we will find out.
Don't take that bit seriously. Given the circumstances Vettel did very well that year. His teammate had a lot more experience and it's not easy coming into a team mid-season, as we saw with Fisichella. The statistics don't show the full picture, but I find it rather amusing that the man who dominates qualifying today was once beaten by Liuzzi. If people haven't noticed already I've added a poll.
Vettel is not the best at qualifying, he has the fastest car on the grid, his age allows him to ensure his quicker reactions make the most out of that "one lap". We have seen Button-Alonso-Hamilton occasionally pop something out of the bag, so I reckon it is between the latter 3.
How would you know if it was him or the car? I think Vettel probably is the best qualifier on the grid, he's able to produce his best when it matters most. He's very fast and consistently delivers on a Saturday. Alonso has been impressive in that regard as well this season, it's really impossible to separate but my hunch is that Vettel's probably better. Hamilton's quick but inconsistent for me, occasionally throws in a shocking qualifying performance. Rosberg isn't anywhere near them. Schumacher's way past his prime and is matching him these days, Rosberg is like Button in terms of pace, but without the racecraft.
Vettel's qualifying record speaks for itself. His combined record against his team-mates is 54-23, and ignoring his rookie season against experienced opposition who knew the car far better, his record is almost 3:1 (will almost certainly be better than 3:1 at the end of the year). That against the Alain Prost of Champ Car, and a man who with equal luck and treatment to Vettel would probably be the reigning WDC.
