04/25/24
October 27, 2013
Sebastian Vettel becomes youngest driver to win four F1 World Championships: He only needed to finish fifth in India to become champion. Even if Vettel didn't finish, Alonso had to finish in the top two to keep even a mathematical chance alive. Alonso ultimately finished 11th, while Vettel won both race and title. Red Bull also won the Constructors title.
Vettel joins such illustrious company as Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost, and Michael Schumacher. Vettel has achieved this in four straight seasons. The last non Vettel champion was Jenson Button in 2009! And people say F1 is boring...
posted by Drood to auto racing at 08:15 PM - 2 comments
There's been some weird traction stuff in corners. Like when there was the blown diffuser, at Singapore there was footage of all the cars and Vettel's sounded weird, the rest, including Webber, sounded normal.
I don't think they're cheating. Newey has always been an amazing designer, and building a car that can get pole is half the battle won, and the RBR car is immense in that regard.
Vettel is a great driver when it goes his way. I'm still suspect of how he'll cope in a car which is less than optimal. I'd like to see how he'd have handled this years Ferrari.
Next year will see the cat among the pigeons when the engine rules change.
posted by Drood at 12:15 AM on October 29, 2013
I doubt many people really care about the constructors title, but I think that's the key here. His Red Bull car almost always has some sort of edge, whether it's KERS-based pseudo-traction control or it's something more prosaic. Vettel's clearly a great driver, and it takes nothing away from him, but there are numerous examples from this year where the car just turns differently from everyone else, even including Webber (when his car hasn't mysteriously broken down).