Danke Seb! Lessons to learn from this legend.
Danke Seb.
I have been a great fan of Sebastian even from the times he was hated the most in the grid. Not because he is winning, In fact, I have been following F1 since 2014, that is precisely when Sebastian started to lose his dominance. I liked Seb back then because we shared birthdays on the same day. He might not leave the track with a greater note for his name, But no one started like him in the history of F1.
But Sebastian used his opportunities to his best which made him move to a better team called Scuderia Torro Rosso in 2008, which was powered by a Ferrari engine (Ferrari won the championship in 2007 and had a pretty impressive car). After four races of the season, Vettel was the only driver to have failed to finish a single race, having retired on the first lap in three of them, He was very terrible at handling pressure back then which continued to this date, I believe. In his 6th race, he went on to take pole and take a win with a lead of 12.5 seconds in a wet race. Vettel became the youngest driver in history to win a Formula One Grand Prix, aged 21 years and 74 days. Which boosted his confidence to an extent and took the pressure off his shoulders and he went on to perform better than his parent team Red Bull Racing, which just got him promoted to the Red Bull the next year.
Red Bull hired Adrain Newey ( A history glorified Formula 1 Engineer) in 2006, who was working with the new 2009 regs which lasted until the year 2013, and Sebastian got 1 runner up and 4 championships to his name. He was widely known for his intelligence in his days in Red Bull, his low fuel strategy, his tire management, And the way he exploited the blown diffuser bringing in new driving techniques made him absolutely stunning and completely outperformed talented and experienced Mark Webber. Since he had a strong car the maximum pressure he had is on Saturday to get a pole and in the race with fresh air in front of him, he was unstoppable. Red Bull's environment was not as toxic as it is now. In fact, Sebastian had the best times of his career in Red Bull.
The downfall of Sebastian.
Sebastian chose to move to Ferrari in 2015. He himself said it is his pleasure to drive for such a brand and win races and repeat his idol legacy with that brand, but little did he figure out what it has to offer him choosing the brand over his team. Sebastian Downfall started when he joined Ferrari. In the year 2015, he just managed to get 3 wins and when keen attention is given all the 3 wins came in slow circuits, Two of them in a street circuit and one in Hungary. He was not up to the catch in fast circuits even though he was catching those podiums often the race gap was not promising. The reason for his below-par year was simply his anarchy from Ferrari. F1 is a competition where drivers drive the car to win a race. The team should make sure that they not only make fast cars but also the car that suits the driving style of the driver. Which Ferrari still now has not implemented in their design process, which is mainly due to the brand consciousness of Ferrari and their adamant behavior ( I have got an idea for my next blog, Lol . How ego failed Ferrari?). So to win races, it should be a combination of both driver and car which is important, failing that Vettel was not up to the mark in fast circuits. 2017 was the best year of Sebastian in Ferrari, it was that Mercedes was way faster than Ferrari, that he simply could not do anything but he still managed to push Bottas back and took second place in driver standings.
In 2018, Ferrari got the car. Ferrari was close to Mercedes at some races better than Mercedes. This is when he faced some real pressure in his entire Formula 1 career then, that is after a decade. Ferrari had the car, Pressure from Tifosis, Pressure from PR, Pressure from every nook and corner because Ferrari had a competitive car after a decade and now he had some intense wheel to wheel to battle with Mercedes Hamilton who was equally there. Just like I said before he was Terrible at managing pressure, so many mistakes especially the German GP, Which is still known as his career-changing accident, where things drifted apart from him and eventually he lost his confidence. In 2019, He was defeated by a rookie driver in driver standings, just the same way He did to Mark Webber a decade back. In 2020, the Ferrari was not on the mark with the car and that is exactly when the relationship between Vettel and the team broke with Sebastian accusing the team of not giving equal cars and Mattia saying that He is expecting better performance from the second driver (Sebastian Vettel). I do not want to talk about his rest 2 years because I really wished he was retired by 2020.
Maybe this blog does not sound like a praising message to Vettel, but unlike other drivers, he had shown us lots of lessons to learn from him. How pressure can fail you? Why not be brand conscious? How early success ruined his later career. Also that he was hated by the grid the most in the early days because of his attitude, It is understandable giving so much success to a boy in his early 20s is the same as giving a million dollars to a 10-year-old guy. But as he aged he got mature enough. He was also actively involved in social activities during his days in Aston Martin which was restricted when he was in Ferrari. And finally leaving us with his legacy.
In 2018, Ferrari got the car. Ferrari was close to Mercedes at some races better than Mercedes. This is when he faced some real pressure in his entire Formula 1 career then, that is after a decade. Ferrari had the car, Pressure from Tifosis, Pressure from PR, Pressure from every nook and corner because Ferrari had a competitive car after a decade and now he had some intense wheel to wheel to battle with Mercedes Hamilton who was equally there. Just like I said before he was Terrible at managing pressure, so many mistakes especially the German GP, Which is still known as his career-changing accident, where things drifted apart from him and eventually he lost his confidence. In 2019, He was defeated by a rookie driver in driver standings, just the same way He did to Mark Webber a decade back. In 2020, the Ferrari was not on the mark with the car and that is exactly when the relationship between Vettel and the team broke with Sebastian accusing the team of not giving equal cars and Mattia saying that He is expecting better performance from the second driver (Sebastian Vettel). I do not want to talk about his rest 2 years because I really wished he was retired by 2020.
Maybe this blog does not sound like a praising message to Vettel, but unlike other drivers, he had shown us lots of lessons to learn from him. How pressure can fail you? Why not be brand conscious? How early success ruined his later career. Also that he was hated by the grid the most in the early days because of his attitude, It is understandable giving so much success to a boy in his early 20s is the same as giving a million dollars to a 10-year-old guy. But as he aged he got mature enough. He was also actively involved in social activities during his days in Aston Martin which was restricted when he was in Ferrari. And finally leaving us with his legacy.
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