F1 Fanatic

I think some people see him as being too corporate – that he got through to Formula 1 because of his connections to Red Bull, rather than his talent. And Red Bull are unpopular because of the way they treat their drivers; given that Vettel always benefits from team decisions, he is unpopular by extension.

You get this with Alonso as well though don’t you, it’s just that his almost flawless performance this year in something of an underdog of a car has silenced a lot of his doubters. For some reason people assumed that a lot of Vettel’s performance last year was down to the car and that he was slightly undeserving of the praise he received. Something I strongly disagree with. people also seem to feel that there’s something underhand about how Red Bull go about building race cars and winning championships. While I doubt many go so far as to accuse them of outright cheating, I think the way they push the brinksmanship of F1 to its limit does make them a target for some (totally misplaced) ire.

But in a lot of ways I think this is something that non-native English speaking drivers will have to suffer. If you look at drivers like Button, Webber, Hamilton, etc, being interviewed, they are always very natural and entertaining in front of the camera. As you’d expect from someone speaking their native language. No matter how well someone like Alonso or Vettel learns to speak English, there will always be some slight language barrier which means it’s hard to get a good understanding of their true personality. They can end up coming across as terse, or overly scripted in the way they answer questions which naturally rubs people up the wrong way. Thankfully things like social media are helping to break down this wall to some extent, and show the more human side of these drivers who can otherwise seem quite aloof, but I think in the UK we’ll always have a situation where foreign speaking drivers will never be accepted as warmly as native English speakers.

@magon4, you’re probably right there’s a disproportionate amount of disparaging comments about Vettel, but I agree with Keith that “hatred” is too strong. Personally, I do like Vettel – most of the time – but I also root against him. Sebastian was great not only on Top Gear but also at the Autosport International festival (this winter?), and not just for his Kimi Raikkonen imitation.

Especially over the course of 2011 Sebastian just turned into someone I didn’t want to see win again. If I have to think about why, I suppose it’s just that I had enough of him beating my favourite drivers Hamilton and Webber. I stress I’m not a hater, though, I even attended his homecoming in Heppenheim in December 2010 (alright, I’m a little bit ashamed about that, and the SV hat I picked up there ;-)

I guess everyone who wins more than others will have to suffer from that.
Piquet, Senna, Prost, Schumacher and Alonso all have felt it, and so have Hamilton and Vettel.
People generally liked Barrichello, Massa, Hakkinen (who won a lot but still didn’t get much flack since he was facing MSC) and Webber, who have rarer wins. Even Button kind of benefits from winning less, in that sense.

The fact that he drove the top car the 2 previous seasons, have made me not to like him. If does something good this season in level cars with the others, then my opinion for him will change.

I certainly don’t hate him, but I do dislike him, for may combined reasons. In interviews I see him as fairly childish with his humour, and his sulking when races don’t go his way appears the same, particularly when he moans at the team for something that is clearly his fault, or when it’s the first race in the last 4 that he hasn’t won. His finger is very annoying, mostly because of the way he brandishes it, as you would if you giving somebody the finger. His dominance last year was depressing and tiresome. And his driving in 2010 frustrated me, seeing him take out two championship contenders in 2 separate races through silly manoeuvring.

Here I have to disagree @jobymcanuff, Vettel is, as Schumacher was and is, always very fair and clear about his responsibilities, and about those of other drivers. He is not always very careful about it, which I like, since he doesn’t seem to feel the need to be politically correct. But when he’s to blame, that’s what he will do – blame himself. And when others are to blame, he will do that as well, with no concern over public opinion – he is just himself.
This is why when Vettel praises the team’s effort, you know he means it, since he will criticize when he feels that is fair.
In this regard, he is similar to Schumacher, who used to be branded arrogant, but actually was just also speaking his mind (which journalists love, since it produces one or the other headline). And both of them are the first to take responsibility when they see it.