Vettel stronger than Alonso and Schumacher?

Now that he is a double Formula One world champion and the equal of, among others, Fernando Alonso, the question arises of knowing how far Sebastian Vettel can go.

Niki Lauda, as usual, has his opinion on the matter but first prefers to comment on the historical performance of the Red Bull driver: « Winning two titles at this age is the best performance, so far, in Formula One » confides the Austrian, to the agency Reuters, from Suzuka. « Winning the first title is always the hardest because, from go-karting, it’s years and years of work just for this particular day. The second title is easier because there is less pressure. »

Sebastian Vettel indeed approached this 2011 season in a position of confidence after a more than complicated quest for the Grail in 2010, and many fear that the German’s domination, often compared to Schumacher, will continue to the point of seeing him flirt with the records of the Kaiser. « All the conditions are in place for him to do it » assures Niki Lauda, even though he admits that it will depend greatly on the career choices the German makes: « If one chooses the wrong car or if the car being driven doesn’t work well, then one cannot win, because it is always the combination of both things. But, theoretically, Sebastian can certainly win more than Schumacher if he is in the right place, at the right time, because he has the talent to do so. »

However, there is another point in favor of Sebastian Vettel according to Niki Lauda, which is his youth, coupled with the fact that today in Formula One, the notion of danger is more relative: The cars and tracks have evolved so much that drivers today no longer consider the risk as we did in the past. This question doesn’t arise because they are used to their cars being safe and sound: they hit everything they can hit, and nothing happens to them.

This relative absence of fear allows, according to Niki Lauda who is well placed to talk about it, to no longer question the validity of taking risks to achieve a pole position, a victory, or one more title: « I had reached a point where I really decided to find something else for my life, but in his particular case, with his age and what he has yet to accomplish, there is no reason for him to be demotivated. […] He is the kind of person who, with every lap and every race he does, wants to be faster and faster. »

But the competition is determined not to make it easy for him, starting with Fernando Alonso who has now been joined in the records by the Red Bull driver and even surpassed in terms of precocity. The Spaniard also made a point of meeting Vettel next season, this Sunday, in a press conference, by assuring that “now, we will see who is the youngest triple world champion,” to which the Red Bull driver replied: “Did you notice that Michael is the youngest seven-time world champion of all time?”

For the record, Ayrton Senna is the youngest triple Formula 1 world champion at 31 years, 6 months, and 29 days. The Ferrari driver, currently just 30 years, 2 months, and 11 days old, will need to win the title in 2012 to become the youngest triple world champion in F1 history. He will also have to hope that Sebastian Vettel does not win any more championships before 2018 to retain this purely symbolic title.