Sebastian Vettel 2013 World Champion

[555-04Q2]

In my opinion Vettel has moved ahead of Hamilton in terms of ability now after this particular season. Hamilton by contrast seems to be regressing gradually, I put it mainly down to off-the-track distractions. F1 is not his ultimate priority and it shows.

I have never been Vettel's biggest fan, ever since Turkey 2010 when he drove into Webber and Red Bull's preference to him first appeared. I still think they favour him heavily, every call they make favours him and has done throughout their time year. I can balance that with the fact that Vettel is clearly way ahead of Webber now, although how much overall interest Webber has had since the stressful 2010 campaign is unclear.

However during this 7-race winning streak, Vettel has been peerless. The car is great of course, but his wins have included ones where he hasn't led all the way, and has had to dig deep. He is a fantastic driver. I just wish he didn't do one over on Webber in Malaysia this season, as that showed a lack of class.

Overall, I still think Alonso is the better driver. Some of his drives in rubbish cars really are amazing. Had he won in 2012, and he really should've done, were it not for Grosjean in Spa and Raikkonen in Suzuka, it would have gone down as the greatest championship win of all time.

Right now, I put Alonso at the top, with Vettel a very close second.

It would be very intriguing to see how Alonso and Vettel would do in each others cars. Alonso has never had a car which has been streets ahead of all the others, yet he still has two titles and could have had two more. Vettel has had the best car for four seasons, and won all four - fair play. But would love to see him in a Ferrari of 2012/2013 and see how he does.

I agree about Lewis. Ever since he canned his father as his manager he has been struggling on and off the track. The girlfriend also seems to be a big distraction and why not, she's a pretty + famous chick We still haven't seen the best of him yet, I think there are a few good seasons to come when he gets to his early 30's.

Vettel vs Alonso is a no brainer for me. Vettel is a great driver, no doubt about it, and considering he is only 26, scarily for the other drivers his best is yet to come! BUT, as we stand right now Alonso has no peers. He is a class act. Yes he can get worked up at times but as you stated he has delivered some amazing title challenges and race wins when he had no right doing so at all! He is the most complete driver on the grid at the moment.

[jens]

Comparing Alonso and Vettel is tricky due to very different cars, but at the moment I'd put Vettel at least as an equal to Alonso. And in both long-term and historical perspective he is likely going to move ahead sooner or later. If I am speaking from my personal feeling point of view, I think in 5-10 years' time Vettel could legitimetaly included in the group of the all-time legends of Fangio, Clark, Prost, Senna and Schumacher as a sixth member. He leaves an impression of getting there. Getting better each year, his mentality and attitude of finding bits and pieces all the time. And long-term view on competition seems to suit him as well with the influx of paydrivers. If I had to give Alonso a historical perspective, he reminds me more like Lauda. Which is still very good though and nothing to sniff at.

I know sometimes early 2012 season performances are put against Vettel, but every driver has their dips, especially when they are younger. Nobody was a perfect driver at the age of 25, even the greats. Looking at drivers, when they are now older and supposedly at their peaks, you can see for instance Räikkönen hasn't been qualifying well recently, Hamilton's season has had ups-and-downs (like in 2011), Alonso has been outqualified by Massa a lot recently. So none of them is perfect and anyone can be criticized.

I think we won't get a very good answer if we put Vettel straight into 2012 Ferrari and see, how he performs. If we just put him there, then granted, he is likely to perform worse than Alonso. But the point is if he switches teams, what can he do there long-term, how well can he unite with the team and engineers. IMO his abilities on that front are underestimated. From that point of view I view Vettel being made of the same material as Schumacher himself. He could struggle initially, but in third or fourth season could feel very comfortable in the car, conserve tyres very well compared to his team-mate, etc. All we are seeing in RBR now. I think it is no coincidence that not only Red Bull's performance, but also Vettel's performance as a driver tends to come to the fore in the closing stages of a season. He is learning the lessons of a season and how to adapt to the current car well.

[henners88]

In my opinion Vettel has moved ahead of Hamilton in terms of ability now after this particular season. Hamilton by contrast seems to be regressing gradually, I put it mainly down to off-the-track distractions. F1 is not his ultimate priority and it shows.

There's no question Vettel has matured into a very capable racer and has handled having the best car and converting this into a championship winner very well. I don't agree about Lewis and his off track distractions. I think this season we've seen a much more focused Hamilton. A driver who has put all those distractions behind him and is focussing on the job that needs to be done. I also think too much was made of these distractions during his last couple of season's at McLaren and think it was maybe more to do with being unhappy within the team rather than Lewis being unprofessional.

I'm hoping next season we'll see a big improvement. Lewis has exceeded many expectations this year going from a team he is comfortable at, to a team and car that was focussing itself around another driver. Lewis joined fairly late in the development of the current car and I'm hoping next season the car at least has a chance of being designed more to his needs. Its clear at times he's struggled for grip, braking changes, and hasn't been able to maximise the potential of the car. All things we know Lewis is usually very capable of doing, so hopefully next season we'll see a much more improved scenario.

We've got to remember a driver performing at the top of his game in a team who have built themselves around him and who offer the best package on the grid, is very difficult to compare against a driver only enjoying a fraction of the support IMO. I see quite a few people saying Vettel has performed better than Hamilton or Alonso, but for me I really don't know how easy it is to compare? I feel if you put any of the top three in a car of their choosing and offer full support, they'll get the job done. They are all World Champions after all so have all proven they have what it takes.

[Zico]

Lewis is regressing? I don't think so. He never will be as clever and tactically aware as Alonso but make no mistake he is still one of the very quickest in terms of outright pace. Unfortunately F1's endurance/pace balance is askew and does not reward the very quickest drivers half as much as it used to.
If everyone was given Red Bulls for a whole season with tyres that allowed the drivers to push to near max over a whole race distance, I sure wouldn't want to bet against Lewis.. would you?

[steveaki13]

I used to think Seb was 4th in the currant drivers in 2010 when he won the title. Then I thought he was behind Alonso and Hamilton and on par with Kimi, but I have to say now I think Seb is on par with Lewis and Fernando.

On one lap pace I think Lewis and Seb are dead level, but sadly (from my point of view) I see Vettel as able to be more consistant than Lewis over a season. I don't think if Lewis had been in the Red Bull for the last 7 races he would have won 7 in a row.

I love Hamilton, but I think he has a tiny piece missing for that kind of Vettel/Schumi dominance. Even Fernando might struggle with it.

[The Black Knight]

http://www.espn.co.uk/redbull/motorspor ... 34415.html

Good interview with Webber here. He said that Seb is the master of the Pirelli tires. I've always personally felt this played a big part in Seb's success as well, that he was able to get to grips with the Pirelli tires so much. That just shows his class though!

[airshifter]

My opinion of Vettel has improved every year. The guy certainly has drive and focus, and it seems one of his few flaws is not always knowing when to listen to his engineer and back off, but so far it's hasn't really bitten him. Certainly if RB develop a lesser car or the competition climbs in comparison we might see how cool he remains under greater pressure, and that might just happen next year with all the rules changes.

As for overall ratings of drivers and team support, very hard to judge IMO. The only of the top drivers we can judge in equal machinery in recent years is Alonso and Lewis and they scored equal points. To me this indicates that Alonso was slipping, or Lewis was still maturing, or any combination of the two. Webber did have a good year with RB when Seb was still less matured, but then faded quickly to the talents of Seb.