Is Vettel overrated? What do you think

[raceman]

If he cuts through the field with raw pace and sheer driving talent (which he never did, yet), then the hype is correct. Actually, we all would like to see this happen; don't we? His clear-track speed is obvious, but one needs to see what can Vettel do if he qualifies lower!!

I mean if he qualifies 5+ on the grid and gets on the podium then (without any disasters for the folks running ahead of him and he overtakes them), this thread stands invalid then!

[nipo]

I agree Vettel needs to proof himself. I think the best in the field is still either Alonso or Hamilton, probably Hamilton. After that comes Vettel, Rosberg, Button, Kubica, Massa. Some others seem to have potential, but are hard to say because they've never had good enough machinery to show what they can do over an extended period of time, like Sutil or Buemi.

We cannot quite prove or disprove Vettel at the moment, I think. The observation is that he qualifies well and likes to win from pole. He needs a few more opportunities where he needs to fight through the midfield for us to judge whether he can fight like Alonso, Hamilton, or the old Schumacher. Sure, he was a bit lacklustre at Shanghai when Hamilton was passing everybody like mad, but I think we can give him a few more chances until we arrive at a conclusion.

I don't think he is overrated, though. He does have the material to become a world champ and he has already demonstrated that very well. The question is whether he has what it takes to be regarded as a "great" driver.

[autogyro]

Just think if we had reversed grids, we would know already.

[marcush.]

time will tell.
If a seven times Worldchampion is still questioned for his ability or talent (!) my standpoint is :
who cares?

[Ashley]

In fact Vettel is a great pilot and he's in a team which is willing to compete with the great ones of the sport but the fact is that Red Bull is still having problems with the RB6. Its true that everybody thought that 2010 was their year but its not easy to come up with a competitive car. Remember Mclaren last year

[ISLAMATRON]

But my issue with Vettel is that generally speaking he needs a spectacularly fast car to win. This is by no means a tragedy, Hill, Villenueve and Raikonnen are examples of this.

So what about Monza 2008? The Toro Rosso wasn't the fastest car by a long way. He dominated the whole weekend in the wet and did not make a single mistake to take his first victory. For me the whole race weekend was like a poem.

All drivers need fast cars to consistently win but only very few can win in a car that isn't even top three and on merit instead of by attrition.

Yes, Monza 2008, where Bourdais quallied 3rd... yes STR was damn near the fastest car on the grid... They had the best set up for the situation... everyone else was watching the sesame street weather report.

Vettle was overated since his friday testing days with BMW, but now he is starting to show the skills that some were hyping him up with. He definatly quals well, but passing skills seem to be limited. He is Ok in the wet, but not great, he still makes mistakes, but they all do. dont know much bout his technical skills but he seems to do ok. Last year shows that with the right car half the drivers on the grid are WDC capable, but could Vettle threaten with a less than dominant car... that is still to be seen. I kind of doubt he could have won races in the Dog that the McLaren was last year.

[marcush.]

thats a good starting point here.
Red Bull is actually having a distinct car advantage for almost a year now, yet both Webber and Vettel have not been able to dominate the championship and grab the bull by its horn and be champion.
One of the points is Red Bull mysteriously not producing reliability with their cars.
they clearly wer unhappy with their Renault engines but still that what they have and still have trouble with .They have some issues creeping up like the Brake disc failures or hub/wheel failure and this is something that you simply cannot shrug off with bad luck ,as there is no bad luck in these things..
You might get hit by a heave spring that is bad luck ,but not your car letting you down when others have strings of finishes for 2+ years (Heidfeld as an example).
I´d say there is at least one Championship in Seb.

[vall]

I kind of doubt he could have won races in the Dog that the McLaren was last year.

It was a dog at the beginning, but improved a lot later. To the point that even LH could win a couple of races

[toshinden]

overrated? IMO, no. in his early years, he kinda remind me of JB in his early years
but his fighting capability is just not the same as before like he was in his old team.
He sure has the talent, but i still need more to be convinced.

[myurr]

To me Vettel can be very much like Massa - on his day with a good setup on the car he can blow everyone away and dominate a race weekend. But he seems to only be able to win from the front - no matter what the car advantage he still doesn't seem able to bully his way through the field like a Hamilton or Alonso. Like Massa he also seems to make the odd reckless mistake, but where I think he is slightly better than Massa is in his ability to drive a car that is not set up perfectly. He's not as adept at this as, again, Hamilton or Alonso, for example, but he doesn't suffer as much as Massa or Button.

So he no doubt has at least one championship in him, but in a tightly fought championship in broadly equal equipment, my money would actually be on Hamilton or Alonso coming through thanks to their ability to turn a bad situation around and fight their way back to the front.

Ps. his celebrations are starting to look a little bit fake and smug, they're starting to grate with me. Maybe it's just me.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Myurr


+1 on the finger pointing/punching celebrations.


When he wins Im all "well done mate well...." the he starts that silly f***ing finger thing and I think...."you tosser".

[Mysticf1]

+1 Theres no need for that style of celebration.

I was starting to warm to Vettel before the season started, then came Melbourne qualifying with much expectation on Mark to get pole, Vettel was heard on the radio saying to his engineer "Lets stick it up them" followed by talk of paying Mark back for Germany 09 during the qualifying press conference...i'm all for a competitive spirit between team mates, but thats going a little too far for my taste...or maybe im just bitter

[xpensive]

I say it again, wunderkind needs tougher internal competition, right Chap?

[raymondu999]

Yes, Monza 2008, where Bourdais quallied 3rd... yes STR was damn near the fastest car on the grid...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but he had a dry setup in Italy, and quali and part of the race was raining. Bourdais had 4th.

Actually this guy reminds me kind of like JB and Massa. Where was JB and Massa in a non-winning car? Ok, JB had the 2006 race win (can't remember off the top of my head where it was) but then Vettel had Monza. JB never won a race since, until Brawn came along. In a sense that's similar to Vettel. Massa also had all his podiums and wins with Ferrari.

In terms of results, I say he's not too far off in a sense from Massa and JB, and even Hamilton. Hami had a stunning debut in 2007, and nobody can deny that. But he was in a racewinning car, just like the 2009 Brawn, and 2009/2010 RB is. Sure, Hamilton had 2009 wins in a dog of a car. But then again in those two races the car was only half bad and not as bad as it was earlier on. This would be similar-ish to Vettel's 2008 Monza situation. So he wins in a winning car, and in a car that's not really supposed to win, he wins too. Granted Hamilton's a demon overtaker, one of F1's best overtakers, and Vettel rarely overtakes, but that's besides the point. I'm talking about results.

[Just_a_fan]

[Ok, JB had the 2006 race win (can't remember off the top of my head where it was)

Hungary. Won after Alonso lost a wheel I think.