The Official Sebastian Vettel Fan Support Group Thread

[jens]

This post is a classic case of having a prejudiced opinion, then skewing what happened to suit that view.

The rules, particularly regarding the use of tyres in 12 and 13, were primarily designed to knobble the RB. The way the tech regs have evolved over the last 10-20 years, has often meant the greatest determining factor on performance has been aero. Which has been the strength of the RB throughout 10-13. The rules are so tight, that it's hard to overcome a deficiency of performance, particularly a black art like aero. Even over a few years.

It worked in the first half of 12. But once RB overcame this obstacle strategically, Vettel/RB won four on the trot. The season was too long for Ferrari, and was too much for Alonso to overcome his disadvantages.

In 13, the rules went even further, where Pirelli were asked to produce tyres that actually ****** up. But once RB successfully sooked to get the rules their own way, by producing harder tyres and not allowing the rotation of them (Which MB were doing to good effect), status quo resumed. The fundamental advantage RB had in aero came to effect and Vettel won 9 on the trot. The cars from 10-13 were in effect the same. RB always had that advantage, even if the degree varied slightly.

I don't understand how anyone can fail to see this.

I can see, what you are trying to say, but I'd look at it from a wider angle.

Aerodynamics is only part of the package. I mean, yes, definitely Red Bull had the best aerodynamics throughout the era. But if the car was bad at managing tyres, it doesn't mean it was the best car in a given weekend. Just a random example - if a car has the most powerful engine, it doesn't mean it is overall the best car if it has rubbish aerodynamics. It is all part of the package.

In late 2012 there were only three race weekends in which Red Bull genuinely performed above others - Japan, Korea, India. Other than that it was a close year all around. Vettel was battling with McLarens in Singapore and won after Hamilton's DNF. Just two weekends before that McLaren was dominating the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix. Only Pérez with his inspired tyre strategy got close in the race.

In terms of speed it was overall very close between the packages of McLaren and Red Bull in 2012, tyres, aerodynamics, or whatnot. McLaren's problem was that they were let down by race operations and reliability, that's why they ended nowhere near titles.