Vettel: second title “more than fantastic”

2011 Japanese Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Suzuka, 2011

Sebastian Vettel paid tribute to his team after winning the world championship for the second time.

After the race he said: “A lot of people have been quite confident about the title, but one of the important things was that we didn’t allow ourselves to drift away with the thought too much. Instead we concentrated on every single step and everything we have done this year and everything we have achieved – then wow.

“I want to thank all the guys and girls in the factory in Milton Keynes, as it’s not just us here pushing very hard, it’s them as well – from the post office to the design office to the engineering office here at the track, their effort is just incredible.

“It’s hard to imagine you know, we have two cars and two drivers only and we carry that weight on our shoulders every time we go on track. Sometimes we don’t treat the cars as good as we should, but we always try to get every single bit out of them every race weekend.

“But it’s phenomenal what’s happened – we set ourselves the target to win the championship this year and so, to win it by Japan with four more races to go, is difficult to put into words – it’s as confusing as the first one. I never imagined I would win one championship and so to win this second one is amazing.

“I have a lot of good memories from Formula 1, from watching it when I was young, to now and I feel fortunate and blessed to experience today. There were so many excited people when we did the drivers’ parade today and that was my last thought when I put my helmet on. For drivers, it doesn’t get much better than this, a sunny day and all the fans excited to see what you do – I think that’s what life is about.

“And so, to wrap up the championship here is difficult to put into words – it’s more than fantastic.”

Image © Red Bull/Getty images

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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35 comments on “Vettel: second title “more than fantastic””

  1. Watching Seb celebrate and wave to the fans almost brought a tear to my eye. The only thing that drove me crazy was the music RBR was playing and now that daft ‘Big bad wolf’ song is stuck in my head!

    Seb seems like a lovely guy and although I wish Ferrari were doing the winning I am really happy for him.

    1. @Steph I agree it was good to see him win the WC again.But last year’s win was somethings special,tears never came in my eyes ever in F1 until I heard his radio conversation in the slowing down lap.To this days I really enjoy those moments.

      1. @Steph @wasiF1 The guy can be cheesy as hell when he wants but I always think he’s genuine. That montage the BBC showed almost brought a tear to my eye for Vettel when they showed him it.

      2. There’s à first for everything. My first time was when I saw Jean Todts face at Monza while we were told that Schumacher would quit

        1. And Schumacher crying like a baby in front of the world after the race is priceless.

          1. Wasn’t that in 2000 when he matched Senna’s 41 wins?

  2. He’s been faultless all season. I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Vettel’s but I find it interesting to note how the public’s attitude to him has changed over the past year. Very few people make remarks over his supposed inability to pass anymore. The biggest complaint is about his finger! He appears to have matured massively this season and I look forward to seeing how his career develops.

    1. @colossal Squid , I agree, the boys has become the man, it’s suprising to me to actually be pleased for him, somehow he used to annoy me and i looked for fault in his driving, but truth be known he has gained my respect (Something Schuey never did till he retired!). Well done Seb, but I think 3 in a row WDC’s may start annoying me again.

      1. I think if he was as dominant next year as this year most everyone would be annoyed!

        1. I’m hoping for six more, myself. :-)

        2. Hopefully, McLaren and Ferrari will be able to carry their speed over to next year as I understand the rules are not changing greatly and Adrian N. will have less scope to improve.

    2. Let’s wait and see. We are eventually witnessing the greatest champion of all times, or not. Things can change drastically in F1. You can a great car for 3 or 4 years and then someone else build a better car and we know the car is, at least, 50% of your success.

      Vettel is a very good driver and has taken the most of his car, which is very good. Look at his team mate struggling while he’s landing poles after poles, wins after wins.

      However, let’s wait and see. What we’re now saying about Seb many have said about Alonso, but that fine driver from Asturias has not win a WDC since 2006. If Hamilton didn’t end up in the gravel bank in China back in 2007 he would be double WDC too, many said “he’s the man”, now some people believe he’s the next “Jacques Villeneuve”…

  3. Q: (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de Sao Paulo) Sebastian, could you describe your manoeuvre at the start of the race? Jenson said that it was not so fair.
    SV: I just spoke to him. He expressed his feelings. Initially I wasn’t sure where he was, I didn’t really see him. I thought he was either on the right or he was far away on the left. I saw Lewis and I thought I had a good start and kept moving to the right, looking for him. By the time I saw him, I realised that maybe I was a little bit too far to the right and then he was backing off. Obviously no intention to put him in any danger but I think we can run with two wheels on the grass, can’t we Fernando?

    1. Can’t we Fernando?

      Heh… nice one from Seb.

    2. And why should he treat Jenson any better than he treated Mark last year.

  4. Well done Vettel! He’s been virtually flawless in maximizing the car advantage this season. I can’t help feeling it seems a little bit flat, though, compared to last year. It would have been good to have seen the two top drivers over this season – Vettel and Button – have a closer run-in for the title. It was just a bit too easy. Even maybe for Vettel! For the skill and focus he’s shown this year, he doesn’t deserve to have his victory put down mostly to the car, but until Red Bull have a serious challenger again, the doubt will linger. Saying that, he’s surely now got the career time, team and mindset to become an even more difficult rival for the other drivers.

  5. I loved the bit where he was talking to the BBC about when Schumacher passed him on the track when the race had finished. I can imagine that being quite mind-blowing, growing up with him as one of your idols.

    1. Do you have the link? Thanks

  6. Add the name VETTEL to the list of all time great drivers.

    1. Indeed, and one of his best stats is his 35% pole ratio – the fifth highest of all time. If we were doing the “champions of champions” poll again, Vettel would go quite a bit further than last time.

    2. Only time will tell, but I rank him second behind only Michael Schumacher, and ahead of Senna and Prost on the list of all time greats.

  7. flawless season of Seb.

  8. Youngest ever double world champion. Nothing says it much better than that. It has become very difficult to be a fan of a team that does not have a Sebastian Vettel in its lineup. He’s fast, calm, composed, grounded, and is just a genuine likeable guy. His driving this year has been sensational and that’s why he is a deserving world champion.

  9. Well & Truly Deserved from Seb,Best Driver all around this season(how many times do i have to say this everyone should know this).

  10. Well done to the lad. He’s gone a long way to addressing all the criticisms sent his way. While I’m not a massive fan of his soliloquies over the radio, he was really humble in the press conference and gave his thanks and apologies to the rest of the team, including Mark. Still retains a semblance of like-ability even when he is dominant.

  11. Totally dominant season from seb, but there was no excitement for his win! It was a given and there was no drama or suspense!! Shame on rbr for telling mark again to hold position, that could have added a little bit of entertainment and shown the world that they are not like ferrari. In my opinion they are worse – why not let mark race seb? Seb could have just moved over if he was struggling and let mark try to aim for 2nd in the championship.

    I find all their pr crap intolerable, yesterday I read an article that stated that rb will let their drivers race and there will be no favours to webber to try to gain 2nd in the championship – but there r certainly favours for vettel even when the points don’t matter anymore! I think they’re favours for his ego and that of helmet marko!!

    Jenson was superb!

    1. Shame on rbr for telling mark again to hold position, that could have added a little bit of entertainment

      That’s the issue though. A typical race for Mark sees him in a position where he’d need to bust a gut to catch up to Seb when it’s already too late. He doesn’t tend to get himself within striking distance before the final stint.

    2. Vettel was told NOT to race Alonso to make sure they would get the result that they wanted.
      There would be no point at all in telling Vettel to stay away from Alonso and tell Webber to get a move on and hunt Vettel down. Then he would be attacked from behind, and forced to close in on Alonso, to keep the distance to Webber and that would risk the whole operation.
      Without gaining them a single point more for the constructors championship.

      Only a stupid team principal would let the drivers race at that point.
      Yes Vettel could let Webber through to help him gain 2nd in the WDC, but who wouldn’t want their world champion on the podium, in the press conference?

  12. Don’t get me wrong I like vettel when he is on his own without the rbr pr machine.

    For instance when he was on top gear. But put the 2 together and I feel like puking!! The pile of lies, double standards and bs is smelling very bad!!

  13. Wait, he thanked the people in the Milton Keynes post office? Sounds like a conspiracy…

    Seriously though, hats off to Seb. It’s been a pleasure to watch him race this season, & I can imagine this championship being talked about years from now as one of the greatest.

  14. Simply awesome. Vettel just gets better and more likeable than ever. At a time when every other driver in one of the top teams, bar Button, is showcasing a bad attitude, or giving bad performances, Vettel makes it look so easy, so fun, so right.

    This championship is a testament to not only his talent, but his attitude as well.

  15. In my opinion this has to be one of the most watered down championship win in recent years. This and other leading F1 sites only have 1 article about a newly crowned WDC? proof that as much as people say they enjoy RBR’s domination, it has made the sport boring. A WDC is crowned and there are 29 comments? Says something

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      10th October 2011, 17:05

      @lhfanatic if this was a German-fans blog, make sure ther would be as many comments as on the “Button wins Susuka GP”… and then I’m considered the always-biased guy

    2. There’s more reaction to it in other articles, for example:
      Vettel clinches second F1 championship in Japan
      2011 Japanese Grand Prix championship points

      But last year we had a down-to-the-wire four-way thriller. This year we had a race where the outcome was a near certainty five races from the end of the season. So I’m not surprised there’s much less discussion about it.

  16. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    10th October 2011, 17:02

    Now all of us know that was what he was talking about… Congratulations Sebastian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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