- 13 Jun 11, 09:22#260594Hope people don't see this as putting Vettel down, far from it, I think he is a very good driver. Having said that, I really can't see that he's had many opportunities to show his racing skills given he's driving a car so much faster than any other car.
In fact, I'm still trying to come to terms with how Jenson beat him so easily in Canada. Basically, Vettel capitulated almost as soon as Jenson got to him.
In China he was passed without giving much of a fight.
In Monaco he gave up a huge lead and was pretty much saved from having to do any defending by the red flag.
Spain is touted as a great race for him, but, honestly I saw that as a very ordinary race for him. He spend two stints stuck behind a car that was a second a lap slower before you count DRS and he couldn't find a way past. Lewis did catch him towards the end of the race, but he never got a sniff at a pass, in fact I don't think he even got any part of his car level with the RB7 - so basically Vettel only had to defend fresh air for the last part of the race. As well, Lewis got the worst of the back markers. Vettel was faster by 2 or 3 tenths basically every lap in sector 2, so Lewis had no chance of even trying to threaten. I think the closest Lewis got was when he saved a double bang of KERS and the DRS - and even then he couldn't draw beside any part of the RB7 by the end of the lap. The RB7 just had too much df and speed out of turn 16. I agree, he didn't make any disastrous mistake a la Canada, but, I would have been very surprised if he did make a mistake defending air.
As I said at the beginning, if that sounds harsh, its not meant to. It's not Vettel's fault that he's driving a car that is just so much faster than anything else.
"He was the fastest driver I ever saw - faster even than Fangio"
________________________- Mike Hawthorn on Alberto Ascari