05/11/2013
FEATURE BY MIKE LAWRENCE
There have been some elements of the press who have been claiming that Sebastian Vettel cannot be considered one of the greats until he has won championships with different teams.
I cannot follow the thinking behind this. Jim Clark spent his entire professional career at Lotus, but few would deny his position among the pantheon of the greats. Alberto Ascari won all of his World Championship races with Ferrari. Jackie Stewart won all but one of his GP victories with Team Tyrrell.
Fangio won titles with four teams and I have seen this held against him; the charge is 'cockpit hopping'. In fact, three of the teams for whom Fangio won titles, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati withdrew from racing at the end of a season when he won a World Championship. He had to find another tram.
Alain Prost drove for several teams. Does the number of teams for whom Prost drove enhance his reputation? Perhaps not when you consider that he was sacked by both Renault and Ferrari and remains the only top driver to have been sacked by two top teams.
Vettel has actually driven for three teams. He became the then youngest driver to score points with BMW Sauber (2007 United States GP). He joined Toro Rosso for the 2007 Hungarian GP and stayed until the end of 2008 and joined Red Bull for 2009, He made mistakes, but he learned from them and one thing he learned was consistency.
What Sebastian has been doing is the same as Clark and Ascari: take the lead and pull away. It doesn't make for an exciting spectacle, but neither did Ascari or Clark. When people talk about great drives, they usually mean dominant drives, but for some reason, Sebastian's considerable achievements are played down by some.
That really is not fair because he is doing what every driver on the grid would like to do and what every team wishes their cars and drivers could do.
We have been seeing Fernando Alonso have to battle for places, but it is not something he does by choice and not something he expected when he signed for Ferrari. Fernando has shown determination in a poor car, but he would rather be in a good car which is perhaps why his manager approached Red Bull.
I have the feeling that Alonso has lost some of his edge as the season has gone on, as has Hamilton. There is a sure way to tell that: the number of times a driver speaks to the media.
What is remarkable about Sebastian Vettel is the lead he establishes on the opening lap when the fuel load is heavier and brakes and tyres not yet up to temperature. The other driver who used to do that was Ayrton Senna. Senna set pole 66 times, but scored only 19 fastest laps. Fastest lap tends to be set late in a race, but Ayrton did his best work, relative to the rest of the field, in the opening laps, just like Sebastian Vettel.
To win in any race requires a combination of car and driver and Sebastian and Red Bull have clicked. Vettel is not relaxed behind the scenes, he can be a real fuss bucket, but teams don't mind that provided a driver delivers. Niki Lauda was a right graunch in the gearbox when he arrived at Ferrari, having achieved very little previously, but he delivered where it mattered.
All drivers seek what they believe is the best opportunity and very few have ever been bound by loyalty. It is also rare for a team to remain loyal to its drivers, John Surtees was sacked by Ferrari, as were Alain Prost and Kimi Raikkonen, World Champions all. Luca di Montezemolo has recently said that Ferrari is above all drivers. That sounded to me like marketing speak, boosting mystique, since he also has road cars to sell and Maranello now faces stiff opposition in the market.
I once congratulated Derek Bell after one of his wins at Le Mans. Derek said, with characteristic modesty, 'I had the best car.' I said, 'Porsche knows that too, but they wanted you to drive whereas they could have had me at a fraction of your fee.'
Sebastian probably does have the best car, but he didn't secure the drive by being Capt. Affable. He had pulled off a remarkable win at Monza, 2008, in a Toro Rosso. It remains the only win Minardi/Toro Rosso, has enjoyed in its 28 year history.
Vettel joined RBR in 2009 and, first time out, gave the team its second pole position, and the first for ten years. (Rubens Barrichello set pole in France in 1999 when the team had been Stewart GP,) Vettel won his debut race and was second in the next one.
Other things had been going on in the background. Adrian Newey was poached from McLaren at the end of 2005 and he had strengthened the technical team, notably by bringing in Geoff Willis as Technical Director in mid-2007. Key engineers now have contracts as tight as any driver so it takes time to build a technical team. McLaren have been recruiting in preparation for Honda's return in 2015.
The first time many of us had heard of 'gardening leave' was in 1996, when Newey decided to move from Williams to McLaren. Time was when designers could leave at a month's notice and join a new team with next year's car in their head, plus any blueprints they happened to have about their person.
Red Bull has long had in place a driver scholarship scheme with Toro Rosso being used as the entry-level team, something for which I do not think that Dietrich Mateschitz has been given nearly enough credit. It is without precedent.
It is a fair assumption that there is communication between the two outfits so Red Bull knew a lot of inside information about Vettel before he was signed, as they knew about Daniel Ricciardo before they took him on. By the same token, Red Bull passed on the chance to sign any of Toro Rosso's other drivers, most of whom have had their chance in Formula One and who are now otherwise occupied.
Sebastian has shown that he can win in any conditions and has an acute sense of strategy, witness his second lap tyre change in India. I don't get the reluctance to hail him as the great which undoubtedly he is.
Some people get irritated when he holds up a finger when he sets pole, or wins, but that used to be seen as youthful exuberance and he was still a teenager when he made his F1 debut. Remember what you were like, aged 19?
He is good looking, charming and witty and a great advertisement for the sport. He disobeyed team orders in Malaysia, but that is the worst that can be said of him. He has not deliberately put rivals off the track like Prost, Senna and Schumacher (who remains the only driver ever to be stripped of all World Championship points for a season.)
Red Bull has brought together the right management, technicians and drivers. Other teams have done it in the past and now it is Red Bull's turn to enjoy the sunshine.
What amuses me is how some of the F1 para-sites, who do not know their history, constantly link Sebastian with a future move to Ferrari. That would be like suggesting to Usain Bolt that he could double his earnings, provided he carried a bucket of wet sand.
Learn more about Mike and check out his previous features, here