Well done, you choose to read my sentences selectively. Earlier in the season Mercedes made several "team" mistakes, and more recently that's been Ferrari's game. The difference comes down to which driver has made mistakes, and Lewis has made many fewer than Sebastian. End of story.
Maybe we should get over this "Vettel is not good enough" crap? It's boring.
Jolyon Palmer
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/45936291
What happened next was pretty much an exact replica of the incidents Vettel had with Hamilton in Monza and Max Verstappen in Suzuka. Wheel to wheel into the corner, side by side and Vettel spins from the inside.
This is so unusual in racing. Usually with small contact it is the driver on the outside who is in a more precarious position, but spinning on the inside has now happened three times in quick succession to Vettel.
In isolation, all are simple racing incidents. It's wheel-to-wheel racing and someone comes off worse. It's unlucky for Vettel.
But now this has become a running theme in Vettel's racing, you start to wonder why that is the case.
His car looked like it was on the edge of oversteer anyway in those couple of corners. You could see him fighting at the wheel, lacking a bit of rear grip, which wouldn't have helped when it came to the spin.
I think that Vettel, knowing his championship position, and probably with a lot of exterior pressures as well after a mistake-ridden campaign, is afraid of major contact with his rivals.
He seems so desperate to avoid clattering into the driver on the outside that he is tightening his corner, in a bid to steer clear of them, and his inputs are making the car spin, with the help of some minor contact.
If Vettel had opened the steering against Verstappen in Japan and Ricciardo in Austin, there would have been bigger contact, no doubt about it, but it would have been side-to-side, wheel-to-wheel contact. And you can often get away with that.
In a bid to avoid this, Vettel is continuing to turn when the car begins to slide, and inevitably he spins. It seems like he's too tentative, and not as committed to the moves as Ricciardo or Fernando Alonso might be, two of the best wheel-to-wheel racers in the sport.
I know the feeling because I've been there myself, last year in Malaysia.
I think one of the problems is that the car has not consistently been on equal footing with Mercedes. There have been some races where the Ferrari has been dominant and others that have you scratching your head and wondering where the pace from two weeks ago went. The fact of the matter is that the Ferrari has been way off the pace since Spa, and is now the fastest again. That inconsistency can also mess with a driver's head. Suddenly, the moves you were pulling in the previous race are no longer doable.
Disappointed Since 2010
On Reddit is the topic that Vettlel when Rosberg finished his career had signed a preliminary contract with Mercedes.
It is Vettel
Not Vettle
"If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari" - Gilles Villeneuve
Riccardo is simply just a solid driver and humiliated Vettlel. Charles will show off an even better side. The team will also quickly put it on him
Somehow I think so too, but don’t forget that Vet is a good in quali also, especially if he’s got a good car
But so is LeClerc, one has to look at the difference between him and his teammate in the same machinery, he’s miles away
I think we’re in for a good treat in 2019....let’s hope the car will be just as good, if not better than this year
So 2023 started off bad, but managed to claw back some lap time come end of the year. Lets hope SF24 will give us tifosi something to smile about.
I don't believe what Toto says.
Why? How do you think Lewis won his WDC? With a Mercedes that was a full 2 seconds a lap quicker than the rest of the field. When he had internal competition from Rosberg he made mistakes. Only after they got Bottas as a lap dog that he started to shine but more often than not it was all because Bottas is an average driver than anything else. So much so there is already talk he might be dumped for Ocon next year.
Vettel and Hamilton in equal cars gave us a good 2018 season, yes, the Merc was always quick even though many try to point out that Ferrari was some rocket dominating. Both drivers were alternating the championship leadership until the slip from Ferrari since Monza were the team was not giving him Full unconditional support a-la Schumacher/Rubens or rather Lewis/Bottas by making Kimi move aside until the gap was big enough as we see happening all the time in the Mercedes box.
Even with a massive 50+ points gap they still made Bottas move over TWICE for Lewis last Sunday and as far as i know it was the first time this year we saw Kimi applying some team tactics to slow down Lewis. Spot the difference.
Am not defending or denying Vettel made mistakes, I was 2 inches close from shattering my TV screen when I saw him spin after the Daniel contact in the first laps but give the guy some air.
Ferrari have personally gift wrapped and handed over both titles to Lewis and Mercedes this year, even Lauda said it on his hospital bed
I lost some respect for Seb in that time, other moment was last year start in Singapore.
I believe if car is good, Seb & Leclerc will be evenly matched, one ahead of the other from track to track. But if car is difficult to drive, Leclerc will come out better. We still have 3 more races before this mouth watering contest
Formula One motorsport director Ross Brawn believes Sebastian Vettel's mistakes can no longer be viewed as an unfortunate coincidence and are instead proof that the Ferrari driver is "out of sorts".
Vettel's championship chances took another hit at the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday when he started fifth on the grid due to a penalty and was then involved in a collision on the opening lap with Daniel Ricciardo. He has not won a grand prix since the Belgian Grand Prix in August and now needs to win the remaining three races and hope title rival Lewis Hamilton scores less than five points in the same period.
In contrast, his teammate Kimi Raikkonen won the U.S. Grand Prix after making a strong start from second place and Brawn believes it's time for Vettel to reassess his approach to racing.
"On a weekend on which Kimi demonstrated that the Ferrari was once again really quick, the other side of the coin is represented by Sebastian Vettel, who was again no stranger to mistakes," Brawn said.
"On Friday there was a small one, when he failed to slow sufficiently for red flags, and he paid the price with a three-place penalty. Then, in the race, he yet again collided with a Red Bull, this time Ricciardo's, and once again Vettel came off worst. It was another lost opportunity to close the gap in the title fight, especially when we saw what Raikkonen did with the same car.
"I certainly don't want to put Vettel in the dock, but these incidents can no longer be seen as coincidence, but rather they would seem to indicate that Sebastian is a bit out of sorts at the moment."
Brawn, who was the technical director at Ferrari during its last period of sustained success with Michael Schumacher, believes this year's Ferrari was good enough to win the title.
"It's a shame because this year, the Maranello team has been able to give him a really competitive car -- right from the start of the season. Since the start of the hybrid era, Mercedes has never faced such stiff opposition and has never had to push development as much as it has this year. That's down to the men and women who work at Ferrari and obviously, that includes the drivers.
"Now, any hope of bringing the drivers' title back to Maranello is dwindling and the time has come to do the maths. Their most important task is to work out how to help Vettel make the most of his massive talent. You don't become a four-time world champion for no reason, and Sebastian has definitely not forgotten how to win. In a sport as complicated as Formula One, you only reach your goals if all the pieces of the jigsaw fall into place. If just one piece is missing everything is compromised."
There was no humiliation.
One could easily say that Vettel had a bad year while at the same time Ric had a great year.
Noone can get safe results from one year.
Consistency is the name of the game and since Vettel switched to Ferrari , we cannot know who is the better of them.
Wording like that only shows that you just hate the man.
"If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari" - Gilles Villeneuve
Seb's main problem is not with the team or the car, it's with Lewis, Max and throw in Bottas, the Merc car, and I can't understand it , but the R Bull car. Kimi's win shows that Ferrari team, car wise has what it takes to do it.
The issue with Seb has never been the car to begin with.
My opinion is that he had to do much more than what he felt that he had to do (meaning that apart from driving, he had to do things that normally belong to the pit wall) and also there were no clear #1 and #2 roles (Arivabene admitted to that) , and with a clear #1,#2 team as Merc is (contrary to what they say at times) that added to pressure. Add to that the italian press, expectations etc, he did crash under that.
"If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari" - Gilles Villeneuve
In my opinion Seb is just passed his best. Eventually any sportsperson will be passed their best if they stay in their sport long enough. Some peak and decline earlier, others have more longevity.
I believe when Seb was not the #1 driver in any race it was because he wasn't there due to whatever was going on. Kimi I believe never refused to be the guy to move over, if the occasion allowed it. Please give me an example of what pit wall things Seb had to during a race that weren't his responsibility as a driver. I don't know what he had to do?
Sebastian Vettel faces Ferrari SACK!!
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/f1-a...-US-Grand-Prix
I agree with this.
Aroutis I believe is saying that Seb does'nt feel confident with the pit wall and it "adds more food on his plate" with regards to added pressure when compared to MB pit wall. Yeah, Lewis questions the pit wall, but he feels more confident with the responses and their judgement. RedBull also has a good pit wall as well.
It's not how start but how you finish.
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