
Vettel.
It had to be, didn’t it?
He drove faultlessly to pole position when he team mate was floundering in fifth and led the race, if not on track, then effectively, from lights to flag.
He’s not a particularly great driver to write these columns about, merely because when he’s good he doesn’t tend to scrap for things. When he does, things tend to go wrong – see Turkey and Belgium for examples. It’s just all a bit…dull when he gets things right.
Now, does that diminish his achievement in winning in Abu Dhabi? Not at all. What it does do, however, is indicate that were Hamilton to have come out in front of him after the pit stops, he’d have struggled to get past cleanly. Yes, we know it’s Abu Dhabi so overtaking is almost an impossibility, but the point stands when a variety of tracks are considered.
He simply doesn’t quite conjure the same overtaking respect as Hamilton, Alonso, Kobayashi or even Button. This probably just proves how quick he is when he’s on song – no one can catch him or get in front of him to create the problem, but it does mean that we at Badger want to see him do some of it before we start going nuts over him.
If Red Bull give him an equally quick and slightly more reliable car than this year for next season, he’s going to behard to beat. Very hard.
Graphic courtesy of Unlap