The Rise of the Finger

                     The Rise of the Finger

     

The smoke rose from the doughnuts, as he climbed out of the raging bull, high on his monumental accomplishment and the crowd’s appreciation. His pace has been astounding, his spirit indomitable and his form formidable. But for all of his accomplishments this season, the question remains, whose season was it anyway? Vettel’s or Newey’s?

2013 has been a dream of a season for the young German. His car’s had phenomenal reliability, with no retirements barring the British Grand Prix. He’s finished every race fourth or better, with all but two finishes bringing him a podium. He’s got ten wins from sixteen races and won a race every month.

Vettel’s first win, at the Malaysian GP, lost him a few fans, when he disobeyed direct team orders to take, read steal, the win from team mate Mark Webber. While many said that, at the end of the day, it was a race, the fact remains that Webber wasn’t fighting back. He had been instructed to conserve his tyres and save fuel. Webber followed instructions, Vettel didn’t. Simple as that. Consistent performances thereafter, brought him to the British Grand Prix, where, for the first time since Monza last year, his luck finally ran out. He retired at lap 41 owing to a gearbox failure. He recovered well, winning his home GP at the Nurburgring and picking up a comfortable third at the Hungaroring. That’s where the competition ended really. A fearsome run of six consecutive wins at Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Japan and India clinched him his fourth consecutive title. It was an assertion of dominance, with most of his wins coming from a start to finish lead.

Statistically, there are few drivers this side of Schumacher , who can match Vettel’s records. He’s won four championships at age 26 years and 115 days. To put that into perspective, neither Prost nor Fangio had even won a race at 26 years and 115 days. He’s equaled Schumacher’s record for the most wins on the trot and surpassed Alonso’s tally of 32 wins and now leads the current grid in terms of number of wins. Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner is betting on Vettel to surpass even Michael Schumacher’s tally of seven drivers’ championships. He certainly has time on his side; Schumacher won his fourth championship at 32. In the form that he is now, Seb could even equal Michael’s record of 13 wins a season. Unfortunately though, Vettel has, much like Michael before him, turned the sport into a procession, made it predictable and worst of all, on the verge of boring.

And therein lies the problem. It’s always fun to talk about an era where one driver was always half a minute ahead of the competition; it’s just not a lot of fun to watch. It’s great to discuss Schumacher’s legendary years at Ferrari, but if you were actually there, watching every race, you’d know just how boring it is watching everyone race for second. Think of it this way, kids love superheroes. They love watching Batman taking Gotham’s worst head on. They love Tony Stark rising from the ashes, taking down a whole host of baddies. They love someone facing insurmountable odds, and beating them. If The Dark Knight Rises had been a two and a half hour stretch of Batman catching your average garden variety thief, not breaking a sweat, how many people would actually watch it? The world loves an underdog.

That precisely, is what Vettel’s reign has lacked. He hasn’t had that carrier defining race. Only when he has had to nurse a failing car to victory. Only when he’s had to limp across the finish line, beating the odds, permanently silencing his critics. Only then, in our opinion will be true champion and not just a good driver with a great car.

At the end of the day though, Formula One, much like every other sport, is result oriented, and producing results, is what Red Bull do best. They’ve given Vettel the opportunity every great sportsman deserves, and he’s seized it with a vengeance. ‘Baby Schumi’ has made the top step of the podium his second home, and odds are, you know the German National Anthem better than your own. Like it or not, by the looks of things, we’re going to see a lot more of the finger.