The big question is: how long can he and Red Bull keep this up?
Already there have been mutterings that we are witnessing the start of a
Ferrari-Schumacher type era of dominance, that the next decade will be one
big Red Bull-Vettel fest.
With Seb only 24 and signed to a long-term deal, and with chief technical
officer Adrian Newey and team principal Christian Horner similarly married
to Milton Keynes, the foundations are there.
And it is a sobering thought for the rest of the grid that, but for Brawn’s
double-diffuser in 2009, Seb would likely be celebrating his third
consecutive title right now.
But I don’t see Red
Bull pounding everyone into submission like Ferrari did
in the early 2000s. The conditions back then were so different.
Firstly, Ferrari cottoned on to something which you would have thought, with
all their combined brainpower and expertise, other teams would have cottoned
on to.
And that was that they had not only a fast car, but a reliable car from the
late 1990s through the early 2000s.
That was the backbone of their success. These days everyone is pretty
reliable.
The second thing is that Ferrari could afford to outspend their rivals back
then.
They had their own test track, Mugello, during a time of unlimited testing.
Bridgestone, then in competition with Michelin, were producing custom-made
tyres for Michael. It was difficult for anyone to compete with that.
Nowadays there is no in-season testing and everyone uses the same tyre
supplier. And even if Red Bull could afford to outspend their rivals they
are not allowed to; the Resource Restriction Agreement limits the amount of
personnel and money teams can spend to go racing.
Spending power is not the issue.
Thirdly, let’s not forget that Michael was clearly the No.1 driver at Ferrari;
everything was geared towards him. Often his team-mates simply drove for
him.
Whatever people may say about Red Bull and their perceived favouritism towards
Vettel, not many would question that the Australian receives equal treatment
and equal opportunity.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we are now in an era when the rules are
relatively stable. The reason Red Bull have been dominant for the last three
years is because Newey reacted the smartest to the last major set of rule
changes in 2009.
Newey has proven time and again that, when handed a clean sheet of paper, he
can build a more innovative car than the rest.
But heading into 2012 there are minimal changes. In fact, the one big change
could hurt Red Bull more than the rest; the banning of blown diffusers,
which Red Bull pioneered and which everyone else has subsequently copied.
This is not the start of the ’Red Bull era’. The last two years have been
nothing like 2004 or 2002, when Schumacher won the title with six races to
go.
The competition out there is fierce at the moment – just look at the racing.
The top four were separated by less than 10 seconds on Sunday and there are
five world champions on the grid.
Oh, and if you hadn’t noticed, a McLaren car won the race.
As I said, I flew up to Tokyo after the race and caught up with several of the
drivers including the race winner, Jenson Button.
Everyone was singing and letting their hair down and it was great to see.
In my view we are in the midst of a new golden era for Formula One, not a
return to the dark old days of one team dominating.
Seb and Red Bull just did a much better job this season than anyone else and
for that they should be applauded, not criticised.