Opinion: Sebastian Vettel, a modern great?
- Published on Apr 11th, 2011 by Craig NormansellRemember the date of August 29 2010. Not only was it the day Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix, but as of Sunday's Malaysian race it was the last time - in my view - Sebastian Vettel made a mistake while driving a Formula One car.
It's pretty infamous by now. While chasing down reigning champ Jenson Button, Vettel lost control under brakling and t-boned the Brit's McLaren on the approach to the Bus Stop chicane. The German lost most of his front wing and limped into the pits and ultimately 15th place. Button retired in a cloud of steam.
The next race at Monza had Sebastian's reputation under the microscope. With the Red Bull hampered by the lack of power from their Renault engines, starting 6th and finishing 4th without any issues was a good return to confidence. Chasing the in-form Fernando Alonso around the streets of Singapore showed their was a higher level of concentration possible.
At that point Vettel was seen as a hot-headed young driver that had the talent but lacked the experience. His racecraft was yet to be finely tuned even though the speed was there for all to see. Except if we are to look at the last six FIA Formula One Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel has been the fastest man on four wheels.
One remarkable Sunday in Japan saw him win pole position and the race in a single day. Korea saw another pole, but a blown engine robbed him of a guranteed victory. Vettel was the fastest of the championship contenders when the rain struck in Brazilian qualifying, and then won that race too. Then in Abu Dhabi it was another pole position, another win, and the World Title was in the bag.
2011 has carried on the same form, with a 100% record so far. As a fan, I can label only a handful of drivers "great", usually after their career has finished or after a season has concluded. Sebastian Vettel is has 17 pole positions, 12 wins and one World Title to his name. The astounding thing is that the monikor of "great" sits on his young shoulders very well indeed.
Comments and Discussion
Strange opinion on a driver that's very rarely done any actual racing, and when he's had to he's normally crashed.
Let's give it a few more years before we flash the word 'Great' around
Is this a opinion? He was born some twenty years ago, drive a formula 1 car, lost a wing here, a engine failure there, after some adversity due to his hot temper he won the F1 2010 title. Yeah that why he is great!
C'mom write more than that red-bull... use arguments. Seems like your starting point is that Vettel is great. What is leading up his greatness? Not disputing that he is great bur the recap that i posted is the essence of your article.
75% of his wins have come from pole with everyone politely moving out of the way to let him through.
He'll have to work a lot harder than that to earn the title of 'great.'
Fair point. I'll admit I may have missed the main point from the article. I wanted to put across was that we may be witnessing greatness unfolding in front of our very eyes.
Vettel has been the form man for the past 6 races, winning 5 of them. For the last four races of arguably the greatest season of F1 racing, he was pretty much THE man to beat. He's carried that on this season. If it's down to the RB6 or RB7, then how come Mark Webber isn't finishing second to him at every race?
Also, there is something extremely similiar in Vettel's and Senna's urges to take pole position, probably more so for the German due to the nature of today's racing. I know there's a very long way to go before he's recognised as a great, but he's getting there faster than most!
Don't blame ya craig everyones talking about it now I personaly have to reserve judgement till I have seen more. Preferably how he respondes in a car that is not the pace setter. I can't help but feel hamilton would be faster in the same car, I mean he almost had pole on saturday it was soooooooo close I think adrian was genuinly shocked to see him only a tenth off.
If he wins 10 races this season I'll call him a great right there and then!
I'm not sure. I can see "greatness" in him in the manner he won the last races. The potential is absolutely there to be a modern great. It is too early to tell. Dominance over a season and 2 races is no indication of greatness. I remember Button doing pretty much the same thing that Vettel does (winning from pole). Nobody thinks that Button is great. I think you can only tell after a period over 5 years. Vettel needs to win more than 1 world title. On the current grid only Alonso is in my view a modern great and ofcourse Schumacher (the older brother and from 2006 backwards). F1 is moving fast. The last 4 years we had a different champion each year. Button, Raikkonnen, Hamilton and Vettel. My point is, that the assumption that Vettel can only get better is false. He will be less competitive (car) and how he will deal with that is how we can tell wheter he is great or not.
For me a great driver is one that can out drive a mediocre car. We have seen Hamilton and Alonso take ok cars and push them further than they should be capable of. Vettel has the best car and therefore has only demonstrated that quality once when he won for Toro Rosso. I think he will be one of the greats but I would love to see how he does in a less competitive car.
It is an interesting article and it does make you question what makes a driver great. I do worry that Vettel and Red Bull will be a bit like Schumacher and Ferrari were at their peak. If they are I think we could see the next few seasons lose the potential of greatness and become boring chases for second place.
You are kidding, arent you? Best car around by far, team favorite, and providing he starts from the front row, he either wins, crashes or blows up.
A real great for me is someone like Ayrton Senna in Donington 1993 . Just one of many great races from the Brazilian.
When Vettel has to start from somewhere like grid # 8 and work his way through the field without taking anyone off, and comprehensively trounce the field, then he may be regarded as a champion. To me, he is just a scruffy boy who got lucky.
I have been pondering this question quite bit this week. When does a driver become great? I reckon there are a few factors, as others have said being able to create a result in a rubbish car is the big one. Vettel has not done that yet, yes his first win at Monza was impressive, but we have not seen him create a result from nothing like the real greats have.
I've also not seen him fight his way from the back to the front too many times (tho I am happy to be corrected if he has), his qualifying skill and the engineering genius that has gone into his car has ensured he hasn't needed to do that, but to be considered great he needs to do it.
I think the final factor is continuing to win as rules and regulations change. Some set ups work for some drivers (think Hamilton and hard tyres), greats need to keep winning when things change. Vettel has shown he can live with the tyre changes but I think he (and Hamilton for that matter) need to do a lot more to be considered great.
15th on the grid to fourth at the flag in Brazil 2009 springs to mind as his best drive through the field. It's a fair point that there haven't been many though.
Yes, I agree that Senna's opening lap at Donington is probably a true example of a great driver. Would he have done that in dry conditions though? Probably not!
You have to look at the fact that on a Saturday, Vettel is nearly unbeatable. Granted, that is only when the car is performing well too. Most of the work he needs to do to be in the best position possible happens on Saturday qualifying and makes his Sunday easier.
People seem to be forgetting what he achieved before his RBR days... As an ardent Kimi fan who was won over by him in his days as a Friday test driver, I think this boy is definitely one of the greats. Of course, you couldn't compare him to the likes of Senna et al, at least not yet. In my opinion, he's definitely the best driver on the grid. Is everyone seemingly forgetting Monza 08? Or maybe his blistering form at the end of 07 in the Toro Rosso (with the exception of Japan)? He's young. He makes mistakes. Hamilton (who, personally, I am not a supporter of in the slightest) has made just as many mistakes. Perhaps not in the same way Sebastian has, and perhaps not with as many crashes involved, but all young drivers get a bit hot headed at times. I think 2010 into 2011 has seen Sebastian mature from a talented youngster into one of the modern greats and can only hope that this continues into the distant future!