Vettel

[DocJock]

Just how good is he?

Is his success down to having the best car?

I think he is fast, that much is obvious. I don't think he's a racer though,in the way Alonso and Hamilton are.

Put them in the RedBull and I think he'd swiftly become the #2 driver.

[spazzers]

I pretty much agree. He is blindingly quick over a single lap and that car has been built around his style.

Despite his back to front performances in the later half of this season, I still think he has something to prove to become an all round driver like Alonso, Hamilton etc. Pit lane to third is impressive on paper but when you consider that the car was reconfigured when it was removed from Parc Ferme to optimise DRS and he has the advantage of 2 Torro Rossos and the other Red Bull leaping out of his way, it's not as impressive as it initially looked.

[velocgee]

absolutely agree.

[wojtek]

Still, it takes a superman to drive a F1 car quite so fast. While he is clearly not an all round driver and he's got the handicap of the car built around himself, he is a very good driver. Is it "three-times-world-champion-good"? Not sure, I still have high hopes for Kimi, but I am really far, faaaar from bashing Vettel for anything he has done. It is much more than the driver himself nowadays, it's tactics, it's bending the rules (by the team and the designers), it's business or even it's pure luck sometimes... More or less it's what we would have done in order to win, if we had the resources.

[velocgee]

Jan 20, 2013 0:42:49 GMT wojtek said:

It is much more than the driver himself nowadays, it's tactics, it's bending the rules (by the team and the designers), it's business or even it's pure luck sometimes... quote]

and he certainly has luck on his side; to be clouted twice at Interlagos and suffer little or no damage is totally out of his mitigating control.

Hamilton, on the other hand, seems only to require the merest of brushes to put him out.....