Sebastian Vettel

Lots of threads have alluded to having a discussion about the current world champion so lets get it all off our collective chests (oooeer!)

Lots has been has been written about this young man from his testing debut with BMW Sauber in 2006 aged just 19 - he then progressed to the the toro rosso team for his first full race season in 2008 - the memorable race being his drive in the wet at Fuji where he managed to rear end his future team mate Mark Webber who said ""It's kids isn't it... kids with not enough experience – they do a good job and then they fuck it all up." - Little was Mark to know he would be paired with the "Kid" just 2 years later.

His maiden win came at the 2008 Italian GP where he qualified up from, the race started under the safety car in the rain and the young German led from start to finish in the Toro Rosso - becoming the youngest winner of a grand prix ever.

Then we enter the era of the Red Bull. In 2009 he joined the Red Bull team, which got off to a torrid start as he managed to crash into Kubika in Australia, a feat he would go on to repeat during the 09 season.

Last year needs no mention........

So to the crux of the matter. Is Sebastian Vettel?

the real deal, the baby schumi, the new pretender - a genuine racer? - aka Wunderkind

or

A very quick driver, who lucked into a very fast car and can bang it on pole and lead from lights to flag and be the quickest pilot of a car, yet can't overtake for toffee? aka WunOrAother

 

[RasputinLives]

Its not the first time this has come up through. As mentioned previously Grosjean was discovered to have the same issue last year. Hamilton also had a cracked chassie for a couple of races too.

I know in GP2 Daniel Apt drove two thirds of last season with a damaged chassie.

Seems they are still open to human error.....or it could be a load of bollocks who knows

 

[Mephistopheles]

And this excuse came out for Schumacher when he came out of retirement at Mercedes as well, it seems to be the bog standard thing for a team to come out with when the favoured teammate is struggling against the other....

 

[RasputinLives]

Maybe.

In Grosjeans case I'd argue it might be true as he did have a dramatic turn round.

 

[teabagyokel]

Vettel had a cracked chassis himself for Spain and Monaco 2010.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Surely with all the telemetry the team can see that something is wrong at the very least. Maybe all these gizmos aren't all they are cracked up to be. A bit like Windows.

 

[Greenlantern101]

http://sniffpetrol.com/2014/04/25/vettel-not-playing-says-mum/

 

[Incubus]

Telemetry is only good up to a point and I'm not sure how a cracked chassis should show on the data. They don't exactly put censors on every square inch of monocoque?

 

[RasputinLives]

Do they scan for cracks on a regular basis?

(No dirty jokes please Mephistopheles gethinceri)

 

[teabagyokel]

77% of people polled by Sky reckon Vettel was wrong to obey team orders. Which he didn't.

It fits in with this model of the morality of team orders:

 

[Mephistopheles]

So basically teabagyokel Yeah, no.

 

[Bushi]

I also heard once that the first chassis contains welding points and is by that less rigid and can cause problems. But surely Vettel is driving a newer chassis by now.

 

[Road of Bones]

Well, a Newey one, at least...

...I'll get me coat!

 

[Lewywo4]

I also heard once that the first chassis contains welding points and is by that less rigid and can cause problems. But surely Vettel is driving a newer chassis by now.

After the inspection of the first chasis by Red bull, and have they been able to find a definite defect in this chasis, which could possibly be an answer for some of Sebastian's current problems?
.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Even if there was no crack, they would probably tell him there was one and give him a new chassis or claim to have fixed it with the hope of restoring some confidence in him through the placebo effect. It's what I would do and, for example, what many IT support people do to stop the influx of calls from the person who keeps struggling with their machine. when I worked in a bike shop as a young lad we often replaced perfectly good parts with equally good parts just to give the customer confidence. They would come back the next day and say, "that worked a treat, I can go up hills faster now". Sometimes we would even do nothing and tell them we fixed it, in the knowledge that there was nothing wrong. They would come back and say the same thing.

 

[Lewywo4]

They are giving Vettel a new chasis, soooo let's see if there is an uptick in his performance on Sunday.

Ninja.....I'm glad that you aren't a used car salesman.

 

[teabagyokel]

There was in 2010 in similar circumstances.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

This interview with Alonso certainly makes for more interesting reading now that Vettel is struggling.

He is 26 years old, so when he will have a car like the others, if he wins, he will have a great recognition and be one of the legends in F1. When one day he has a car like the others and he is fourth, fifth, seventh, these four titles will be bad news for him because people will take these four titles even in a worse manner than they are doing now.

So there are interesting times for Sebastian coming.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25035783

 

[RasputinLives]

You could replace the name Sebastian with Fernando and the number 4 with 2 and then the same could of been said in 2007 or 2008 though.

Plus as I've previously said. Alonso loves his media mind games which is what that is all about.

 

[Jen]

Experience brings wisdom and mind games should be the product of experience and/or wisdom!

 

[no-FIAt-please]

RasputinLives Well you could argue that Alonso has gone toe to toe with a driver considered to be among the best in Hamilton, the same cannot be said of Vettel, whose team-mates in F1 have either a) beaten him (Heidfeld & Ricciardo) b) lost their F1 seat (Bourdais) or c) were in their twilight F1 years (Webber).

At the moment it isn't clear just how good Vettel is and Alonso's words are certainly ringing true.