F1 Fanatic

Yesterday Keith posted the results of Belgian GP Driver of the Weekend vote, won by Button with 52%, followed by Vettel at 20%.

The peculiar respect that drivers are being given for their performances, first popped up its head at the Bahrain Grand Prix. In Australia, Button won convincingly in the fastest car of the weekend from front row, and was voted best driver. In China, Nico Rosberg won convincingly from pole in the fastest car, and was voted best driver. Along comes Bahrain, and despite Vettel doing the exact same thing as Button and Rosberg before him, winning convincingly from pole, the vote goes to Räikkönen. Next weekend, Maldonado wins the GP of Spain in the same way, and he gets the vote.

Apparently the argument was that Räikkonen impressed more because he fought his way through the field. Same argument later used for Alonso who inheritted the win after Vettel and Grosjean had technical issues in Valencia.

Along comes Belgium, a race that many believe was Vettel’s best performance yet, and had all the elements of the Bahrain and Valencia Grand Prix. He fought his way forward from a bad starting position. He did so in a slower car. He gained a bit from other’s issues (like Räikkönen and Alonso), but was there to pick up the points. And the race was won by a guy from pole in the fastest car. And who gets the vote? The guy on pole with the fastest car!

* Unlike Button, Rosberg, Maldonado, Webber, Hamilton and Alonso in much the same situation, Vettel does not get recognition for winning convincingly in the fastest car from the front.
* Unlike Perez, Räikkonen and Alonso in much the same situation, Vettel does not get recognition for fighting his way from the back in a slower car.
* Alonso does not get any less recognition for favoritism in the Ferrari team, so that is not a valid reason either why Vettel does not get recognition.

So let me ask you then, what does Sebastian Vettel need to do to get any recognition?
Is there really such a strong bias here that nothing he does is or will ever be good enough?

I hope I can get some honest answers here, as it’s a truly astonishing behavior.

I think Vettel does get recognition, I think most people know that Vettel is one of the best around today. If everyone on this website ranked every driver in terms of overall ability, he would be ranked in the top 3 or 4 on most people’s lists.

Vettel was consistently in the top three in the driver of the weekend polls last year, so many people do still recognise his achievements. Maybe he deserved to win more driver of the weekend polls last year, but when you make it look easy, it is harder to appreciate when Vettel did last year.

He needs to start dead last, charge through the field in the rain in a dog of a car, then win by a minute.

On a more serious note, it’s not that Vettel doesn’t get any recognition, but rather that whenever he wins from pole, there’s someone else who does a tremendous job, thus he always comes of second best.

Interesting thread. Although I think Vettel does not always get the credit he deserves, perhaps because of his 2011 performances, it could be argued that there are mitigating circumstances in the races you mentioned.

In Bahrain, Vettel’s win was not a dominant one. Räikkönen was faster in the final stint but couldn’t get past – he had one opportunity, made a poor decision, and then had to put up with Vettel’s dirty air for the rest of the race. Räikkönen also picked up his first podium since he returned to the sport, undoubtedly giving him a boost in the vote.

In Valencia, he was dominant, and would have won by a mile had he not had the alternator problem. That was enough for me, personally, to vote for him, but many people base their votes on the final result, which is their prerogative, considering F1 is a team sport where reliability is one of the most important aspects.

And in Belgium, I think he would have won the vote had he put in the exact same performance but finished second to Alonso, but Button had been struggling for most of the season, so his win was somewhat surprising. His huge lead in qualifying time also gained him credit.

Recognition will come with time, but there will always be malignant people. Vettel’s case is simmilar to Button’s, they cant do anything to shut the critics up.

@kingshark
Alonso should have disputed ferraris decision

@mnmracer

I for one, am a declared Vettel “hater” and I don´t deny it. Proof of it is that ALL my comments get moderated since I tend to point out the “bad” things about SV and RBR and it seems that either some MOD. or Keith find that annoying. That being said, I will just say this: Vettel is good… I´ll give him that much “recognition” but he just doesn´t do it for me. I guess that 2010 and mostly 2011 have a lot to do with this. I say mostly 2011 because I hated last season… From an engineer´s point of view, it might have been great because we all saw what an incredible machine the RB7 was but, from a racing fan´s (I consider myself to be one) point of view it was crap because all he had to do was steer and brake since he was always on pole. I know the Vettel fans will jump and say that it takes “skills” to deliver pole laps as Vettel did but hey, I am willing to bet my nuts that if Hamilton or Alonso would have been driving an RB7 the outcome would have been the same… a pole record-breaking season and a championship. So you see, the truth of the matter is that SV has never had “bad” equipment. He has had some very, very, very good cars… On the other hand, all the other drivers that you mentioned, don´t have the best cars and yet they deliver awesome performances. I mean seriously…. a Sauber coming in second at Monza? Kimi coming in second after 2 years away, Alonso delivering awesome performances in the begining of the season with what was generally voted the worst car of the top teams (the car has gotten better but it still isn´t the best one), etc… I could go on and on but it would just fuel a debate that would get me banned again from the site.

You mentioned Vettel´s Valencia drive as being top notch, being a second a lap quicker than everybody else, etc… And I will just say this: It is “easier” to drive on a track like Valencia when you get no wheelspin due to torque mapping! That might be the second a lap quicker we all saw… Alonso “inheriting” the win is not his fault… The Renault engine failed, simple as that(anyways, he started 11th for God´s sake, second place would have made me very happy!) Notice I don´t mention Grosjean… why? because FA got past him before his engine failed also…

I guess that although he might come off as arrogant or even pretencious if you´d like, Fernando explains it best…. I have the same opinion he has and most of the persons that don´t give SV his “recognition” will probably agree with what Fernando says… I know i will get the “Monza in the toro-rosso” arguement thrown at me but I have my opinion on that and will not discuss it because it would get too loud and I really want to avoid getting banned because although my comments get moderated, sometimes they take less time and I´m able to exchange thoughts with other F1 enthusiasts and it feels great to discuss and exchange opinions with other that are as passionate about F1 as I am… So to try and keep it short, I leave you this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEzqCcF2mps

and as a bonus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b5VfyKhxWQ&feature=related

BTW, I do not agree with the title, FA is not laughing off anything!!

@andae23 Alonso qualified 11th at Valencia, but just 2 tenths of the top time in Q2, so it wasn’t too bad.