Deconstructing Sebastian Vettel

[u408379965]

Alonso is slightly ahead - but then Vettel get's on the throttle a lot earlier and gains an advantage. Getting on the throttle earlier has nothing to do with driver skill

I'm sorry but that's a ridiculous comment. Throttle application is key to setting a good lap time, the driver needs the aggression to get on the throttle hard and early but at the same time have the touch and the delicacy not to oversteer the car. It wasn't a car advantage that got Vettel through there faster, it was balls, and the fact that Vettel had enough of them to take turn seven (was it?) in fourth and press his car against the wall, while Alonso took it in third and wanted a good two feet of fresh air between him and the barrier. Not only would this have made him slower through the chicane, but he also then carried a speed deficit down the straight until the next braking zone. Alonso had the car to do something about it in Canada, but Vettel did the better job when it mattered.

Also, here's a still of them exiting the chicane. It wasn't a car advantage that put Vettel closer to the wall, it was confidence.

You must log in or register to see images

 

[u408379965]

They were closely matched for most of last year and 2009, so its not like Vettel has suddenly become 1s a lap faster than Webber for no good reason.

Vettel out-qualified him 12-7 last year, and I think it was something like 15-2 in 2009, so it's not a recent development that Vettel is a lot faster than Webber. The gap has increased a bit, but Seb is driving better than ever, although Mark has had a few Kers issues which have contributed to it as well.

 

[Forza Bianchi]

Spain was special for vettel, no Kers for half the grand prix, Lewis having DRS and KERS breathing down his neck. Sorry but in my books a "great driver" turns up on all days and not just Sunday. Don't blame Seb if he's the only one able to nail it day in day out. Every pole and win is special because he has outdone everybody and he got the maximum.

Only because of his car advantage. Currently he is in a position where his teammate can't get the tyres working and he has so much more downforce than all his rivals. He's still a good driver and good qualifier, but his car plays a bigger role in that. I wouldn't call his win in Spain special - once he got past Webber the race was his to lose. Lewis may have caught him, but Vettel's car pulled away in the high speed corners which made it harder for Lewis. Also I believe Hamilton should have attempted a late braking dive up the inside - his attack on Vettel was weak imo - that's not taking anything away from Vettel, as he successfully defended as he needed to, but just that Lewis could have done better.

Spa, Abu Dhabi, China, Canada. All the tracks there, they were weaker. I think it's easier to win a WDC if you only have 1 person to worry about the whole season, Alonso showed that in 05,06 when he won and 07 when he lost, he should of been watching Kimi not Lewis. Same thing goes for 2010, he should of been marking Seb and he blew it marking Webber.

At Abu Dhabi and Spa they were evenly matched with McLaren imo, and I'm sure they had the best car in China. I don't think the number of rivals make it tougher unless the all the contenders have equally matched cars - which certainly wasn't the case for Vettel.

And I'll repeat IMO the MP4-22 was a bigger advantage than the RB6 ever was, I repeat, a rookie gets on the podium 9 races in a row and that thing isn't considerd at all once, a dominant car. Trollop!, this is all a cheap shot to make on the RB6 since Newey designed it, last time I check it wasn't a bunch of monkeys designing the other cars. How do we all know that Vettel just didn't wring the neck of that thing and Mark was in his prime? Too much is looked in qualifying performance rather than race that it's getting boring.

If the MP4-22 was so dominant, why was it Felipe Massa getting so many poles, or Raikkonen winning the most races? I believe that the MP4-22 was equal to the F2007. It's not even slightly comparable to the RB6, which had a much greater advantage than any F1 car post-2004. Just the fact that Vettel and Webber could carry greater speed into corners was proof that the RB6 had more downforce than it's rivals.