Is Vettel in the running for the title?
Sebastian Vettel’s dream quickly turned into a nightmare last Sunday in Monaco. Indeed, the young German’s race ended on lap 16 in the safety barrier. Disappointed, Vettel stayed behind the barrier for a long time, tears in his eyes. Did he realize that he might not yet be mature enough to fight for the title? […]
Sebastian Vettel’s dream quickly turned into a nightmare last Sunday in Monaco. Indeed, the young German’s race ended on lap 16 in the safety barrier. Disappointed, Vettel stayed behind the barrier for a long time, tears in his eyes. Did he realize that he might not yet be mature enough to fight for the title?
While his competitor Jenson Button was clocking laps towards victory like the second hand of a watch, Vettel returned to his pit realizing that he might still be making too many mistakes to have a say in the title race. We remember that he foolishly lost third place in Australia by sending Kubica off the track, that the Malaysian rain didn’t favor him, and that his starts in Bahrain and Spain did not showcase his real talent.
However, despite demonstrating his enormous driving abilities on several occasions (Monza 2008, China 2009), Vettel apparently remains on the sidelines again this year. On the other hand, there is one quality that he must be acknowledged for, which is not common among other drivers: he recognizes his mistakes and shows his ability to learn from them.
He is now entitled to expect that the new package with the double diffuser from Red Bull will truly give the car a leap forward. Even if Monaco wasn’t the ideal place to implant these new solutions on the car, it is still noteworthy that the Red Bull from the first races was more efficient. And for a reason, as Adrian Newey himself stated, the car is designed to operate without a double diffuser.
Vettel and his teammate Webber were, in fact, faced with problems from this stubborn race car all weekend: “It’s like there’s a worm inside,” said Vettel.
Moreover, the super-soft tires did not work at all in Monaco. The car generated so much force with the new double diffuser that the tires disintegrated during the race. This is why we could see Vettel blocking everyone in the race and his lap times plummeting, lap after lap.
During lap 8, one could see a line of 10 cars behind him. It was then that he stopped on lap 11 to put on the hard tires, but they did not bring him joy for long either, as we know that 5 laps later, he braked too late, locked his rear wheels, and ended his race in the safety barrier at Sainte-Dévote.
