Why Is Vettel So Good?

The first thing to say in answering this question is that for the last few years, he has had a great car at his disposal, which often helps to show off a driver’s strengths and cloud any weaknesses. However, Mark Webber also had the same great car underneath him and unfortunately for him, found himself pootling about making Vettel look quite a lot better than him in 2011.

There could be any number of reasons for this, such as reliability, different tyres (probably the most likely option) or dare I say it, Red Bull giving him equal equipment which isn’t quite as equal as they’d have us believe. For the record, I don’t think Webber’s performances last year were as far away from Vettel’s as the results table seemed to suggest, but we’re talking about a table which shows Webber 134 points (otherwise known as ‘lots’ or ‘too many’) behind his team mate.

So what has Vettel found that the other guys really need to? For me, there are three main strengths which mark him as the man to beat…

Approach

The best F1 drivers, as a rule, are bright chaps. It’s a hugely technical sport which requires a good dollop of intelligence just to compete, let alone be successful. Vettel certainly possesses an above average intelligence – he is probably about the brightest of a particularly bright bunch alongside Button, Alonso and Schumacher. Apparently, Vettel was the only driver to visit Pirelli before the start of last season and funnily enough he seemed to get to ‘grips’ the best with the new tyres. That may be coincidence, it may not, but it can’t have done him any harm to at least meet them and try and find out exactly what they were up to. In F1 as it is currently, this kind of thinking is critical. There are many drivers who are tipped as future champions in the lower formulae who come into F1 and for whatever reason are just a bit rubbish, I’m thinking about the Pizzonias and Liuzzis. My theory is that these drivers have made it through mainly on natural talent, haven’t had to work too hard and haven’t necessarily prepared themselves for the amount of work they’ll need when they get to F1. Vettel certainly didn’t fall into that category – he was incredibly talented and worked like mad by all accounts and boy has it paid off!

Technique

Though Vettel is called Baby Schumi in Germany, his devastating pace and ability to turn it on when it’s needed is where most of the similarities end. Schumacher actually has quite an unusual style, at least when the car is working the way he seems to like it. He turns into a corner early and often not from the very edge of the track and hits an apex earlier most. That would normally mean he’d run wide at the exit but he avoids this by generating oversteer during the turn-in phase of the corner, rotating the car a little around the inside front wheel causing the back end to float through the corner. This cancels out any understeer caused by him heading for his early apex. Beautiful to watch when he’s on form – currently a rare pleasure.

Vettel is different. Vettel uses every inch of track at turn in, apex and exit – his line and inputs are quite similar to Mika Hakkinen, another driver who was a brilliant qualifier. He also carries a massive amount of speed through the apex, which is a trait his great car control helps him to cope with. One of similarities Vettel has with Schumacher, and Hamilton for that matter, is his ability to cope with the car being a little loose at the back, but whereas Hamilton lets it get away to the point where he’s having to put in opposite lock, Vettel does it more neatly using the sliding rear end to enhance the way the car turns as opposed to detracting from it. It also means he doesn’t have to hesitate on the throttle, picking it up early, smoothly and quickly. He’s on top of the the car through each phase of the corner rather than having to react to it which is helped by him having a great car, but no mean feat nonetheless. Just ask Webber.

Racedays

One of the chinks in his armour seems to be that he isn’t a natural racer, although there were a couple of occasions this year when he did his best to disprove this – namely in Spain and in Italy. It has to be said though that Vettel didn’t really have to race last year. He qualified brilliantly and did enough over the first couple of laps each race to pull out of the DRS zone and then control the pace from the front. His level of control in the car enabled him to remain on top of the tyres and the opposition with what looked like relative ease. He did exactly what was necessary to win and did the classic thing of winning at the slowest possible pace. Great mind management, self control and once again, intelligence.

What The Others Need To Do

The main thing they have to do is outqualify Vettel. If it can be done regularly it will remove the main advantage Vettel had last season. He’ll have to work to control the race and it will leave him vulnerable to attack from the rest of the field. If they can do that they stand a chance of getting on top of him but it won’t be easy. Vettel was looking increasingly brilliant in qualifying – his lap in Brazil last year was truly awesome and if he and Red Bull can carry that form into this coming season, there are going to be a lot of heads in hands up and down the pitlane.

Author: Stuart McCann