Hamilton to Vettel: What is your secret?

By achieving his 33rd career pole position at the European Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel equals the number of pole positions achieved by Alain Prost, but also, and more importantly, that of the legendary Jim Clark, who held the record until a certain Ayrton Senna surpassed it.

During the post-qualifying press conference, Frédéric Ferret from the newspaper L’Equipe asked the German driver, as well as Lewis Hamilton, what their secret was in qualifying, as the two men alone account for five of the eight pole positions achieved this season. Curious, the British world champion turned to Sebastian Vettel to ask him in turn: “What is your secret?”

Certainly, sometimes well aided by his car – but isn’t Formula One also a story of machines, especially in the qualifying exercise? -, Sebastian Vettel shines particularly with the impression he leaves of being able to produce a lap worthy of pole position at will. Once again, in Valencia, the German pulled the pole position out of his hat after coming out late in Q3: « I’m not sure there’s a secret. We know that in qualifying, it’s all about a single lap and, to be honest, today it was very difficult, very tricky because of the wind that plays a huge role here, blowing in gusts, and generally it feels very slippery. Obviously, the grip is slower than last year because the cars have less downforce, and that makes things more challenging when putting the power down. Many drivers easily lock up the wheels under braking, especially in qualifying when you want to brake as late as possible, but if you brake too late, you miss the apex and lose time. It’s quite tough, but ideally, you simply have to do your lap before that happens and try to focus on the key points, do what needs to be done and watch over what needs to be watched: it seems I managed to do that in the last lap. So I’m happy to have managed to put everything together, just on the limit, and to have managed to get the best out of the car. »

If the German therefore does not believe he has a secret weapon, it remains true that by securing pole position in Valencia, Sebastian Vettel has climbed onto the podium for the most career pole positions. Even if he still shares third place with Jim Clark and Alain Prost, he is likely to soon hold it alone. But another question then arises: Will Sebastian Vettel break the pole position record held by Michael Schumacher (68) ahead of Ayrton Senna (65)?

If we indulge in the always futile game of comparison, Sebastian Vettel is competing in his 89th Grand Prix this weekend. At the same stage of his career, Ayrton Senna already had 37 pole positions, whereas Schumacher had only 13. Among the top five in this statistic of the number of pole positions achieved in a career, the German is currently the 3rd driver in ratio with 37.08% pole positions in his career, behind Ayrton Senna’s 40.37% and Jim Clark’s 45.83%. Thus, if the German continues this momentum throughout his career, he could very well become the first driver to have achieved more than one hundred pole positions.

However, it should be remembered that since Formula One, like any motorsport, remains a discipline where the driver only has relative importance in their performance, nothing can guarantee that the German will maintain such a level of success throughout their career, as today’s truth is not necessarily that of tomorrow.

But the Heppenheim native has a significant advantage that more or less promises he will one day beat this record: his precocity. Indeed, at 24 years, 11 months, and 20 days old, he is the youngest driver to reach 33 pole positions. Ayrton Senna secured his 33rd pole position at 29 years, 2 months, and 6 days, while Jim Clark had to wait until he was 31 years, 9 months, and 27 days old to achieve his. Michael Schumacher was 32 years and 2 months on the evening of his 33rd pole, whereas Alain Prost reached the venerable age of 38 years, 7 months, and 27 days.

Thus, by maintaining a success rate of 37%, Sebastian Vettel could break the record for pole positions held by his compatriot, idol, and friend by his 186th Grand Prix. This means, at the current pace of 20 races per season, he could achieve this even before turning 30. Therefore, given his age and barring any accidents, the question seems to no longer be if he will break Schumacher’s record, but rather when he will do so.