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[Roth]

It was previously said by Toro Rosso that Vettel had an amazing mechanical aptitude. I'd imagine that, and his ability to put down consistent, fast laps means he has the car developed to his liking over the first few rounds.

I think 2012 is a good example of a Vettel season when he doesn't start off with a fast car:

He started off with a 2nd place finish in Australia, Finished 11th in Malaysia after Cucumber-gate, and then finished 5th in China. So after three races he had only scored 28 points. This year he so far has 23 points. (But the big difference is that whereas in 2012 he leader after 3 races (Hamilton) was on 45 points, whereas this year Rosberg is already on 61 points. So Vettel is already 21 points worse-off this season).

Then in 2012 Vettel surprisingly turned up to Bahrain and got a hat trick, but he didn't win another race until Singapore - 10 races later...

Between Bahrain and Singapore that year, Vettel only had 2 podium finishes. Then POW! Four wins in a row. Also his record at Suzuka and Singapore is impressive. I would usually add Korea and India into the mix as well but they're not on the calendar this year.

I guess it's just going to be a question of whether the Mercedes cars will continue their dominance or not....

Or Newey got his sh!t together. His dominance at later tracks is surely to do with car development, and the RB track preference, rather than suiting Vettel in particular. It was usually a time when Webber was consistently at the very pointy end too.

Then again maybe Vettel is a true great but Ricciardo is simply a future five-times champ, and it's really Red Bull, not Merc, with the Senna/ Prost thing going on.

[Jabberwocky]

Vettel won a race in an STR so he must have some skill

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[Roth]

Olivier Panis won in a Ligier.

[Jabberwocky]

To be fair Panis didn't stick it in the wall like so many others did in Monaco that year. Max Chilton would of been on the podium that day.

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[What's Burning?]

Vettel won a race in an STR so he must have some skill

I agree he should have no trouble, his stats are second to none.

[Roth]

Same questions being asked of Vettel, and he's not really giving any positive answers. Reminds me of MS comeback - it'll take a few races, then give him half a season, then wait 'til the car's been designed around him. Then nothing. When the stars aren't perfectly aligned he struggles. There's no other driver on the grid who's taken such a comparitive step backwards with the new cars. He's handling it well in the media, saying the right things but "tough luck" is up there with multi 21 as a defining character moment, which should have seen him fend off Ricciardo, but failed miserably. I don't think a better engine is going to come to his rescue either, because he's struggling badly with the handling, so it's not really a power issue.

[bud]

Kimi isn't fairing very well either, in fact id say he is much worse off than Vettel.

[sagi58]

...When the stars aren't perfectly aligned he struggles...

I would suggest this is true of pretty well any driver... wait, any sports persona... out there!!
F1 is not about man against man, it's about a team effort where the machinery is just as important as the driver!
Of course, your teammate is the best way to measure how you're really doing; but, even then, there will be other mitigating factors during a race weekend.

[Roth]

...When the stars aren't perfectly aligned he struggles...

I would suggest this is true of pretty well any driver... wait, any sports persona... out there!!
F1 is not about man against man, it's about a team effort where the machinery is just as important as the driver!
Of course, your teammate is the best way to measure how you're really doing; but, even then, there will be other mitigating factors during a race weekend.

So now we're into the making excuses part, like MS. He's still a true great, he's just being driven off the track by his inexperienced teammate who up until 5 weeks ago was considered nothing special, because...? Because he has a very narrow effective operating window? He's still got the second best car on the grid, the biggest budget, a team honed around him, he just doesn't have his Newey tricks.

What postives could you take from Vettel's performance so far other than he's a slightly more gracious loser than we'd anticipated?

[Roth]

Kimi isn't fairing very well either, in fact id say he is much worse off than Vettel.

He's struggling, but more than Vettel? He's come into a team with the best driver on the grid, who has spent four years getting that team to work around him. And he's still only in the maybe third best car on the grid, and that's being generous.

[sagi58]

...When the stars aren't perfectly aligned he struggles...

I would suggest this is true of pretty well any driver... wait, any sports persona... out there!!
F1 is not about man against man, it's about a team effort where the machinery is just as important as the driver!
Of course, your teammate is the best way to measure how you're really doing; but, even then, there will be other mitigating factors during a race weekend.

So now we're into the making excuses part, like MS. He's still a true great, he's just being driven off the track by his inexperienced teammate who up until 5 weeks ago was considered nothing special, because...? Because he has a very narrow effective operating window? He's still got the second best car on the grid, the biggest budget, a team honed around him, he just doesn't have his Newey tricks.

What postives could you take from Vettel's performance so far other than he's a slightly more gracious loser than we'd anticipated?

First of all, I'm not making excuses, I made a general observation about a sport, not a specfic observation about Vettel!
Secondly, it seems that you've already made up your mind about who and what Vettel is, so there really seems nothing more to add!

[Roth]

First of all, I'm not making excuses, I made a general observation about a sport, not a specfic observation about Vettel!
Secondly, it seems that you've already made up your mind about who and what Vettel is, so there really seems nothing more to add!

You are defending him, but in a very vague, mumsy way.

There was great anticipation amongst certain people how Vettel would handle the new regs, and it would lend weight to theories about what fueled his mammoth success.
So far things are actually going as were expected if you weren't already predisposed to believing Vettel was a great. Having watched his fortunes fluctuate in direct conjunction with the strength of Newey's developments over the past four years has somewhat, to my mind, cemented his talent as spectacular but extremely narrow. I was actually hoping this year he would show a bit more breadth in talent so we could atleast realise the last four years weren't all in vain.

[sagi58]

First of all, I'm not making excuses, I made a general observation about a sport, not a specfic observation about Vettel!
Secondly, it seems that you've already made up your mind about who and what Vettel is, so there really seems nothing more to add!

You are defending him, but in a very vague, mumsy way.

There was great anticipation amongst certain people how Vettel would handle the new regs, and it would lend weight to theories about what fueled his mammoth success.
So far things are actually going as were expected if you weren't already predisposed to believing Vettel was a great. Having watched his fortunes fluctuate in direct conjunction with the strength of Newey's developments over the past four years has somewhat, to my mind, cemented his talent as spectacular but extremely narrow. I was actually hoping this year he would show a bit more breadth in talent so we could atleast realise the last four years weren't all in vain.

Defending him? Well, that will have to go down as an assumption on your part.

Regardless, as it's already been noted, since he usually starts out the season
relatively "slowly", I guess we'll just have to wait it out, a bit longer!

[Roth]

...When the stars aren't perfectly aligned he struggles...

I would suggest this is true of pretty well any driver... wait, any sports persona... out there!!
F1 is not about man against man, it's about a team effort where the machinery is just as important as the driver!
Of course, your teammate is the best way to measure how you're really doing; but, even then, there will be other mitigating factors during a race weekend.

You are defending him because out of four reasons why he might be struggling there's not one that even suggests it's solely because he's lacking in the necessary skills.

So basically you've said, it's not his fault.

[myownalias]

It was suggested on Sky TV's coverage over the weekend that the reason Vettel is struggling compared to Ricciardo is because Ricciardo is used to a car with low grip (e.g. Toro Rosso) where Vettel has been spoiled with a Newey designed car with loads of grip through trick diffusers and blown exhausts. It's logical, Ricciardo can hit the ground running while Vettel has to effectively learn to drive again!