The Official Sebastian Vettel Fan Support Group Thread

[jens]

It's very premature indeed to judge the whole season by its first race. The affluent teams will continue car development during the season, and the engine manufacturers will continue the development as well since most of them have a number of tokens left.

Nonetheless, I am willing to believe into the rumor, promoted by all the news articles, quotes and blogs, that the Renault engine development has seriously fallen behind. Ferrari is now going to be clearly the number two engine, and the pace of Ferraris and Saubers confirmed this during the Australian GP. This doesn't mean that Ferrari will always stay in front of Red Bull during the season. Red Bull is an expert at tweaking the chassis, and they have proven in 2013 that they can bounce up from an also run up to a dominant team.

I don't think the season is judged by the first race and it is clear Ferrari will have their hands full with Williams and Red Bull this year. I just think P3 in the opening race is worth celebrating. It is sort of a milestone to put it this way. Good start of a new era.

It is clear there will be many races, where Vettel won't be on the podium. And can win a race this year only if Mercedes trip over themselves, which can happen though - happen thrice last year with Ricciardo capitalizing.

However, I also would not write Renault off so quickly.

[kfzmeister]

I am pretty sure last year there was a safety car in that race. Plus Hamilton had retired and Rosberg was unchallenged at the front, so could only cruise.

I am sure you are frustrated Vettel finished third, but don't worry - he won't be on the podium every race, he'll have worse days as well.

Good thing for me is that I don't feel the need to bash any drivers. I am just happy when the driver I like does well and don't feel angry about others, whether they succeed or not.

Wasn't there a safety car this year as well? ;-)
Ok, so HAM and ROS cruised at the front together this year.

I am not frustrated that VET made a podium, but am tired of hearing how well things are at Ferrari since he showed up.

I am glad you are the way you are. I'll try to be more like you :-)

[Big Ben]

It goes to show how low the tifosi's expectations have got. It's all awesome now because vettel is the main favorite to finish 3rd . And I'll celebrate some day Alonso's massive achievement of finishing in the same lap as Mercedes

[jens]

It goes to show how low the tifosi's expectations have got. It's all awesome now because vettel is the main favorite to finish 3rd . And I'll celebrate some day Alonso's massive achievement of finishing in the same lap as Mercedes

Well, unfortunately the situation in F1 is such it is a race for third position for everyone except Mercedes right now. Likewise it was a great achievement for Ricciardo to finish third overall last year. Once the competitive game of F1 has shifted, the goalposts will move as well.

[jens]

Wasn't there a safety car this year as well? ;-)
Ok, so HAM and ROS cruised at the front together this year.

I am not frustrated that VET made a podium, but am tired of hearing how well things are at Ferrari since he showed up.

I am glad you are the way you are. I'll try to be more like you :-)

Thanks.

There was a safety car, though in the early laps. Last year it was somewhat later into the race. Never mind, this is not a big issue.

When last year Rosberg was alone at the front, he had less incentive to push as no-one was near. This year Hamilton had to put in an effort to keep Rosberg behind. It is not like Mercedes had a team order after the first lap to "no battling, keep positions and cruise to finish." Like McLaren did in 1998 with their arguable "first corner agreement" though they still lapped the field...

Okay, the Mercedes comparison is not so good since they dominate anyway. I think "things looking good at Ferrari" come down to various things. James Allison has had greater input into this car, and Ferrari has significantly improved the power unit. It is not about whether Vettel showed up or not, it is about how Ferrari as a team has progressed into this year. Plus they have had major management reshuffle.

[Bagwan]

It was mentioned in the telecast , though , that they are greatly impressed at Seb's feedback , which intimated that Fred's wasn't very good .

Another bonus at Ferrari may be that the two drivers have styles that are similar .

[Tazio]

It was mentioned in the telecast , though , that they are greatly impressed at Seb's feedback , which intimated that Fred's wasn't very good .

Another bonus at Ferrari may be that the two drivers have styles that are similar .

Baggie you are really being very naïve imho .

One final note: For Ferrari fans it will be something of a struggle to get a feeling of being close to the project as neither Vettel nor Raikkonen uses social media, particularly Twitter, to share their thoughts. So it will be the official line only, which seems very old fashioned in these days of the “connected” sportsman.

You're taking the company line hook line, and sinker, which it is exactly what Ferrari want you to do. For christ sake at least Fred spoke Italian, which gave him a huge advantage in giving 'input'. Please produce a link that supports your hypotheses, because I think all you are doing is parroting what the official line is from the Ferrari propaganda machine, which I am finding quite amusing, on top of being extremely naïve.
The only question now is how deep you will swim with the bait

Oh yes here is a little gem from Ferrari.com the official Ferrari web page.

In 2007, Kimi Raikkonen won his maiden outing for Ferrari, an achievement matched only by Juan Manuel Fangio, Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell.
http://formula1.ferrari.com/en/races...term=401976688

Seems a little odd that they would forget that Fred won his first race at Ferrari, or did they?

[airshifter]

I'm glad that things are looking positive for Seb at Ferrari. Regardless of how the car does long term, it's apparent to me that the team is starting to "gel" much better and is more positive all around. Though it's hard to say any one person created this atmosphere I think to some extent someone like Alonso, and other former team members with his attitude, are toxic for a team. With management expected more out of Alonso due to car being crap, it finally drove him away. And let's face it, Ferrari is the team many if most drivers would want to be at. So I think the changes for the positive are as much who they got rid of as it is who is coming to the team recently.

But I do think both Sebastian and Kimi are more the "team player" types, especially as it applies to the engineers and pit personnel. During race coverage they were speaking of finding Kimi under a car with an engineer, and he commented that it was OK because he used to be a mechanic. They also spoke of Vettel being hands on with the guys in the pits.

Knowing you have team players is never a bad thing for the morale of a team. I hope they keep up their positive energy and create a car that stays to the liking of both drivers. I think both will do well this year if that takes place.

[Tazio]

This is not to take anything away from Seb, because I'm glad the team picked him up as he is a skilled driver in the prime of his career. But If you do some serious investigating, as opposed to theorizing about some type of driver chemistry , you will realize that Ferrari are improved, because they have invested 22 of their 32 tokens into the PU already, and obviously it is paying dividends, and I think the influence of Allison is starting to show in the drivability of their chalenger. It also is very helpful having the kind of budget that they have, to pay good engineers to develop the car, and two talented drivers driving the things.

[jens]

In a way I find it quite amusing that Vettel has got a personal "Fan" thread here on this forum. I am unsure, what the initial motivations were, when this thread was created, but discussion has developed pretty nicely here over time!