This favours drivers such as Jenson
Button, who is adept at thinking on his feet and reacting to what is
happening during a race.
Button met his match in Monaco, where Vettel made a bold call to stay out for
56 laps on a set of balding prime tyres, gambling that no one would be able
to pass him.
He was right. A late accident meant Vettel was able to switch to a set of soft
tyres before the end anyway. A very intelligent drive.
3. He has blown Webber away
Some people forget that Mark Webber went into the final race of 2010, in Abu
Dhabi, with a better chance of winning the championship than Vettel.
The Australian had fought all year with the young German and had won numerous
on- and off-track battles.
This year Vettel has been on a different planet. Crucially, he was quicker
getting up to speed with the new Pirelli tyres and the 12-3 qualifying
record tells its own story.
Webber has not become a slow driver overnight. In fact, he was always known as
something of a one-lap specialist. Vettel has simply upped his game and
blown the Australian away.
4. Consistency
Red
Bull threw away a mountain of points last year because of issues of
car reliability and driver error.
Vettel was not blameless in the latter department; he made several poor
starts; lost concentration in Hungary behind the safety car earning a
drive-through; and got involved in enough collisions for McLaren team
principal Martin Whitmarsh to dub him the Crash Kid.
How ironic that name sounds now in light of Hamilton’s recent travails.
Vettel has been largely faultless this year, albeit no one has got close
enough to apply real pressure.
He has crashed three times in Friday practice but came back to win two of
those grands prix, while his brief ‘off’ on the final lap in Canada, gifting
the win to Button, was just about his only notable in-race mistake.
5. Maturity
Vettel was only 23 when he became Formula One’s youngest world champion.
And while he has not grown up in quite the same goldfish bowl as the previous
holder of that record, Hamilton, Vettel was, like the Englishman, groomed
for stardom since the age of 13.
It would have been easy to get a little big-headed.
There were occasions in 2010, notably when Webber was enjoying a purple patch
around the time of Spain-Monaco-Turkey, when Vettel lost his cool,
culminating in him waving his finger around his head as if to say Webber was
crazy after their collision in Istanbul.
Yes, he has been under little pressure this year but he has at all times
appeared grounded, humble and good humoured.
A worthy world champion.