F1 Fanatic

I think Vettel’s season was all about timing; not luck. He’s the perfect driver in the perfect car with the perfect public image and the on-his-way-out (that hurts to say!) team-mate. The only weekend where he genuinely got properly lucky was Monaco. In both qualifying and the race, I don’t think he was the man that should have come out on top. And I honestly thought it was going to happen again (perhaps a safety car though) in Canada when FOM cut to a shot of di Resta in the wall with Button getting closer to making a pass for the lead!

I was actually going to share an in-depth article on this tomorrow, but then on the 2007, 2008 and 2010 seasons (with more to come), but I’ll bite on this one for now.

Australia: Hamilton damaged his floor himself by plowing through the gravel trap of turn 1. That has nothing to do with luck, and even without it, the rest of the race gave no indication that Hamilton lost a certain win there.
Malaysia: For one, another driver ‘sneaking’ in just means that Hamilton/Button etc made a mistake. Own up to your mistakes.
Spain: Agree with raymond here explained, and you can’t really believe that one of the longest straights on the calendar is not long enough. Other drivers certainly didn’t seem troubled by it.
Monaco: As explained by raymond as well, Hamilton messed up himself. No one else to blame for not timing things correctly on a track where you know, any lap can be impeded. Keeping a car on 40-lap old tires is not luck. One could argue what would have happened if it weren’t for the red flag, but Alonso and Button had been behind Vettel for long enough, their tires also getting older, so it’s not like an (succesfull) overtake was inevitable. Even if you agree though, and Vettel had taken 3rd place instead, this was just 10 points less.
Brittain: You’re joking right? Red Bull, more than McLaren, was hurt by the new exhaust rules, and in which Vettel suffered a bad pit stop allowing Alonso to jump him. How do you call that luck? And Webber ignoring team orders is no luck either.
Italy: Again, if you’re that fast, you’re not stuck behind other cars for lap upon lap.
Trying to twist the bad lucks in Abu Dhabi and Brazil is, I hope you realize yourself, just silly.

So to recap: one could argue, but with no certainty, that Vettel lucked into 10 extra points in Monaco. Take in the factual bad luck in Abu Dhabi (25 points, he was way-fasted all weekend) and Brazil (7 points, certain win as well), and Vettel actually lost a net 22 points due to ‘luck’. Even if we consider your points valid, which we don’t, it would have been maybe 38 points he lucked into. With a 122 point lead over Button and a 165 point lead over Hamilton, calling him lucky by even your standards is just silly.

Sour grapes is one thing, but don’t ruin watching Formula One by telling yourself things that are just completely untrue.

@mnm racer:
Australia: The floor was broken before that by a broken bond admitted by the McLaren team
Spain: Both McLarens were geared too short as admitted by the team and the drivers in the F1 season review. That and the redbull’s downforce through the last turn were enough to allow Vettel to stay ahead.
Britain, Lewis was short fuelled and spent half the race conserving fuel, with Mark Webber on the gearbox of Vettel at the end, and Button gaining speed before his retirement, who knows where Lewis could have finished.
Monza: Shumacher was as fast in a striaght line as Lewis was with DRS and KERS. Considering that Monza is just straights with narrow breaking points not having a straightline speed advantage makes overtaking impossible, and before you mention Button, he had the good fortune of having Webber and Massa take each other out, had fresh tyres in comparison to MSC and Lewis who had been battling and was helped by MSC running Lewis out onto the grass