Weaknesses? There were a few question marks over his race craft in his early
years. McLaren
team principal Martin Whitmarsh famously referred to him as a “crash kid” in
2010 after he took Jenson Button out at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Seb responded by cutting out the errors and coming from way back in the title
race to become the youngest world champion in history.
Whichever way you cut it, he has to be considered a great. There is no
compelling argument to leave him off an all-time list.
Statistics? He has now joined Alain Prost on four drivers’ titles, with only
Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher having claimed more. He is third
in the all-time list of pole takers, fourth on the list of race wins.
Raw ability? Remember Seb won his first grand prix in the wet at Monza in a
Toro Rosso. He is not just a flat-track bully.
The way he stormed through from the back of the grid in Abu Dhabi last year to
finish on the podium, or won in Japan two weekends ago, proves he is a racer
as well as a driver.
Professionalism? I believe Seb was the only driver who actually travelled to
Milan to visit Pirelli’s headquarters when the Italian manufacturer replaced
Bridgestone. That is the kind of attention to detail we associate with
greats such as Ayrton Senna.
Driver feedback? Sebastian works exhaustively with Red
Bull’s engineers to understand and develop the car and mould it to
his liking. By all accounts his feedback is excellent.
The only thing he is lacking, it would seem, is popularity with the F1
community at large.
I have already commented more than once on my distaste for the booing which
has followed some of Seb’s victories this year. I still cannot fathom it. He
is a really nice guy with his feet on the ground and a keen sense of humour.
I can understand why his decision to disregard team orders in Malaysia did not
win him any fans but I cannot believe the booing is simply down to that.
Plenty of other great champions have defied their teams before.
In any case, Seb’s popularity, or lack of it, has no bearing on his claims to
greatness.
The one thing that could possibly be held against him is that he has not yet
gone and won races and championships with another team as other great
champions have.
I am not sure whether that should be held against him necessarily – Ryan Giggs
has been at Manchester United his entire career and he is lauded for his
loyalty – but I agree it would show a different side to Seb as a driver were
he to do so.
I have no doubt, based on what he has shown us up to now, that he would be
able to switch teams and win another title.
The only question left is where Sebastian ranks in the all-time list.
Comparing drivers across eras is pointless of course. How can you compare the
courage and skill of a driver like Fangio, who had no seatbelts let alone
any downforce, with the technical precision of Vettel who races machines
which have more in common with fighter jets than the cars of the 1950s?
My own personal preference, of the drivers I have witnessed first hand, was
Prost. I loved his economy of movement, the way he won using percentages.
But Prost was as small as a jockey and had a huge advantage over big guys
such as Nigel Mansell.
It is all horses for courses but any objective comparison of data would have
to place Seb in the top 10 of all time. No one, surely, could quibble with
that?