Why Is Sebastian Vettel Struggling?

There are three members on this forum that pretend to like Sebastian Vettel.

Drunken bonkers Hob, Martial bonkers Artist and Lord Vik.

Drunken bonkers Hobo joined JA606 12 June 2011 and never contributed to the motorsport discussion until the end of 2013 when he discovered that Sebastian Vettel had won the WDC for the fourth time. He then pretended to have an interest in a sport that he quite clearly has no interest or knowledge of. He posts uninformed comments and refuses to substantiate any of his ludicrous views.

Martial bonkers Artist is easy to dismiss. The guy holds the world record for managing to get 100% of his views wrong.

And then Lord Vik. “C'mon Seb” until this year when he did not C'mon.

I think that Lord Vik represents the more juvenile board members that think that the history of football started with the Premier League. And F1 started last year.

Lewis Hamilton's ability was recognised by serious motorsport fans when he was racing in GP2. He then went on to match probably one of the greatest drivers of the modern age. Yet none of the pretend Sebastian Vettel fans have ever commented on SV's driving ability or come to his defence when he has been unfairly criticised. They simply do not know enough about the sport or have the confidence or knowledge to defend him.

Why is Sebastian Vettel struggling – no answer.

Suggesting that Daniel Ricciardo is a better driver is absurd but not producing a credible alternative view regarding his struggles isn't?

Christian Horner and Helmut Marko described Sebastian Vettel as struggling. Not my words but theirs.

4 x WDC impresses people that have no knowledge or interest in F1. You seriously think that a person that has won 4 WDC's is better than all of the other drivers in the history of F1 that have not achieved that? Seriously? Are you mad?

Sebastian Vettel has 4 WDC's so that means that it is impossible for another driver to out perform him in the same equipment?

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Lets be honest this is a sport where driving ability and who is a better driver is all subjective.
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I disagree with this bit. Driving ability is not subjective and who is better is also not subjective. You may argue that some may have a bias to a particular driver but their abilities can be assessed.

For example Di Resta beat Vettel in a more evenly matched formulae.

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The lower formulae are a good indicator because there are not a lot of significant advantages in packages.

When they were karting, Rosberg was destroying everyone until Hamilton came to Europe. Hamilton did beat Alonso in the same car which is the most accurate comparison. I still believe Alonso is a better driver than Hamilton but in terms of raw speed, no one comes close to Hamilton.

A lot of people forget how young Hamilton was when he came to F1 and use his past indiscretions to judge him but do not see he has grown up a lot. Alonso used to be a whiny girl as well but is a lot more mature these days too.

I do not believe Seb can compete with Hamilton or Alonso in the same equipment which is why RedBull were so keen to keep a lapdog in Webber.

Seb is still very young and will get better but his development will not be as complete as others because he has not had to fight anyone for 4 years and his race craft has suffered.

Sometimes a step backwards helps a driver become better. Alonso, Hamilton and even Button have become better for these steps and perhaps Seb will improve as well.

I am surprised he has not been able to adapt his style yet to the new car considering he had more testing time than Ricciardo.

I would just like people to tone down the hype with him, he is a 4 time world champion, no doubt but like everyone said, we'll see what he's made of when the car advantage is gone. So far, the naysayers have been fairer in their assessments of Seb than some of his 'fans'

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I disagree about Hamilton maturing enough.

I think that it is possible and acceptable to form a personal opinion regarding the skills of a driver providing that you are actually interested in the sport and bother to acquire some basic knowledge.

Statics can never answer questions, they simply pose them.

I consider Alain Prost to be a better driver than Ayrton Senna. Alain Prost was rubbish in the wet but then very few races are effected by the wet. I can actually quote stats to prove that AP was better, but why should I?

I formed my opinion, not by dashing over to wiki, but actually watching them.

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton are considered to be the two best drivers currently in F1 and that is why they are the highest paid drivers.

In 2007 Lewis Hamilton matched Fernando Alonso, in the same car, in qualifying 50% 50%. Race results, relying on countback, placed Lewis Hamilton above Fernando Alonso on the same points. However, it is fair to say that Fernando Alonso race performance was slightly better than Lewis Hamilton. I can form that view by taking an interest in the sport and not by some wiki stat.

I laugh at some of the nonsense that is spouted by the few Vettel fans on here.

When referring to the abilities of Mark Webber “Red Bull do not employ dummies”? Oh yeah?

Red Bull contracted with Ferrari for their engine supply and then discovered that the Renault engine was more powerful. Flavio Briatorre ran Renault and managed Mark Webber. Flavio insisted that in return for the supply of the Renault engines Red Bull would have to give a long term driver contract to his client, Mark Webber.

Red Bull never wanted Mark Webber or made him feel welcome. The Ferrari contract was passed on to Toro Rosso.

This is the problem with some sport fans, they simply do not comprehend or understand the sport that they are blowing off about. The majority of football fans that I talk to think that football was invented by Sky Sports with the introduction of the premier league.

As for drivers struggling with rule changes, nothing new there. Drivers struggled with changes from slicks to grooves. Others struggled with grooves to slicks. There are two types of brakes, Brembo and Carbon Industries. Drivers struggle adapting between the two.

When Pirelli had problems in 2013 with their tyres they had to invoke controls on how the teams could use them. One of the controls was to restrict the degree of camber. This control disadvantaged Kimi.

When I read the technical rules for 2014 I predicted that Sebastian Vettel would struggle. He should have used his “3 seconds per lap of intelligence” to use the simulator to get to grips with the new regs. Every other driver did that especially as they had to use the simulator to calculate the fixed gear ratios.

I think the best summary would be something along the lines of this...

The subject of Vettel not being able to handle this year’s car is a simple one. For much of the same reason Webber was unable to trump his teammate, is the reason Vettel struggles with this new set of regulations. The Australian struggled to get used to off-throttle blowing which has proven so successful for Vettel. The new Australian has not been used to this so much for the last 5 years, and consequently is not missing it. Whether Vettel can adapt is the biggest question, but all those saying this proves it was just the car that made him World Champion are foolish. 2014 will be an interesting test of character for the man from Heppenheim.

“but all those saying this proves it was just the car that made him World Champion are foolish.”

http://thejudge13.com/2014/05/03/f1-victims-of-circumstance-shanghai-2014-chinesegp/comment-page-1/

Thats like using an opinion posted by someone anonymous on an obscure forum as definitive proof of a point.

He became world champion purely as a result of his superior intelligence that was worth 3 seconds per lap faster than any other driver in history. Lets see who quotes that somewhere.