Vettel not Formula One's greatest - yet

Yeah the British are all Jealous and the Aussie Conspiracy theorist (Webber Lovers) are the same. This name I have... grinds their teeth for days. ahahaha

uuuum no.

ridiculous article filled with no small amount of bias. while senna,prost and fangio among others were great drivers in the end vettel's only true competition for greatest ever F1 driver will be his countryman Schumacher. personally I can't see him or anyone else for that matter catching schumi's 91 wins. odds are he'll eventually surpass schumi's record for pole positions (currently vettel 43 to michael's 68). as for the most important achievement of all the 7 world titles, we'll just have to wait and see. what is for certain is that virtually every meaningful F1 record in the end will read 1.schumacher 2.vettel or vice versa. seems to be a particulary hard pill to swallow for the brits and various other haters.

Except it isn't the same car. Webber's body frame is different (wider)) and requires the movement of internal components - it is this that is widely believed to be behind all the troubles that Webber's car has with KERS.

argh.. another terrible, disjointed article.. i got about 5 lines into it and had to stop. you can't link sentences together into paragraphs?

Mansell,Kimi Raikonnen, Damon Hill, Viilenauve, Nicky Lauda,Piequet, Gehard Berger.

It's very hard to judge these guys as the car plays such a huge part. Murray Walker only had Schumacher at No4 as an example despite his achievements. That Red Bull car is awfully awfully good but at the same time Vettel's clearly a couple of levels above Mark Webber, it can't all be down to luck four years in a row. A couple of years ago I was very fortunate to attend a dinner with Lewis Hamilton and I managed to get a quiet moment with him. I asked him who he thought was the better driver, Alonso or Vettel? He answered instantly and honestly 'Alonso, it's not even close'. That for me said a huge amount especially given he and Alonso aren't exactly mates. Having said that I think Vettel can't really do anymore than he has. I think he's a wonderful front runner but I'd like to see how he handles things when the chips are down and he has to drive a car that isn't sublime. Then we could judge his greatness.

Just a few issues: “German Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel has won the 2013 World Championship, taking the Indian Grand Prix for the fourth time.” Vettel’s won the Indian Grand Prix three times, not four. The race has only featured on the calendar for three years, so to have won it more times than it’s been run would be quite the achievement. “Vettel should be thanking Adrian Newey for these World Championships. His tightly-designed machines have given Vettel an unstoppable car over the past four seasons.” The RB9 is without a doubt the fastest car on the grid right now and it has been since the tyres were reverted to the 2012-spec construction half way through the year. Red Bull may even have produced the fastest car for the last four years, but you can’t hold that against Vettel. He’s been given the machinery and he’s delivered the maximum possible. Mark Webber, who is no slouch, hasn’t been able to match his team-mate all year (and hasn’t really looked close since the first half of last season). “Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso may claim to be the best driver, but Vettel is still taking the crowns.” Who claims Alonso is the best driver? Fernando probably does, just like Lewis thinks he’s the best driver and just like Sebastian thinks he’s the best. At the end of the day there’s only one four-time World Champion on the grid. Upset fans who’ve grown tired of their favourite driving being beaten are far from credible sources of information regarding a comparison between top drivers. “Lewis Hamilton has also shown signs and could well challenge next year with the new engine rules and regulations. Formula One are going to turbo charged V6s and Mercedes have been working on it since January.” Don’t expect too much of the new engines in shuffling the field. There’s just as much chance Ferrari will come out on top, or Renault again or even Cosworth. Mercedes have a ¼ chance of being the best engine supplier in 2014, but in the end it means little; any major discrepencies between engines will be sorted out with an un-freezing of the lesser-powered engines until they’re roughly the same. We saw it in 2008 after the freeze and we’ll see it again in 2014. Seb’s on 30% win average and has already competed in over twice as many races as Fangio. He might not beat the Argentine’s percentage but if he keeps going at anything close to this rate he’ll do bloody well to challenge the established best percentage of wins. “Fangio is known for having a 47 percent win record throughout his stellar career. This is still the greatest percentage of any driver and will most likely be the record Vettel struggles to break.” Fangio was also 39 when the Formula One World Championship Season began, an era where you’d be lucky to find an F1 driver in their 20s. Comparisons of age mean little. “Prost is most notably known for his epic battles with the great Ayrton Senna in the 80s and 90s. He won his championships on multiple teams, including McLaren and Williams.” Prost won all four championships with McLaren and Williams; that’s two teams. Alonso won his two titles at Renault; Senna won his three with McLaren; Clark won his two with Lotus; Schumacher won five of his seven at Ferrari; Hakkinen won his two at McLaren. The list goes on. Switching from team to team and winning at all of them doesn’t happen very often. The most notable driver to have done it was Fangio and he shamelessly jumped from team to team chasing after the fastest car for the coming season. If Vettel started doing that I suppose he’d be crucified. “Senna also has one of the most famous quotes in motorsport history: “If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver.” Senna’s philosophy was if there is the tiniest of gaps, you go for it.” Senna also deliberately crashed into Prost at the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix and said that quote in the aftermath of the incident. He was no angel. Crashing into Martin Brundle, as you say, was a show of his hot-headedness and impetuousness in a fight. A brilliant racer no doubt, but not the infallible one you profess he was. “But Vettel has never had a rivalry like Prost. Sure Alonso and Hamilton have challenged but, apart from last year, Vettel has won quite easily.” He’s had two team-mates in Formula One. Bourdais he dominated and Webber, while it pains me to say it, has very much been put in his place. “Red Bull is just so dominant that when Alonso was asked what he wanted for his birthday this year, he asked for Vettel’s car.” Sounds like sour grapes to me. “Until Vettel wins in a car which is clearly not the best on the grid, he will not get the respect he actually deserves. This is sad because he is a great driver.” While I’m the last person to jump on the Monza 2008 wagon (and the car probably was the quickest on the day), he did it just there. The car wasn't close to the best on the grid at any other point in the year. At Bahrain last year, too, the Lotus was probably the quickest car on the grid – but Vettel finished ahead of both Raikkonen and Grosjean. Vettel’s team-mate could finish no closer than 38 seconds behind in fourth. “So, until the end of Vettel’s career, we can’t judge him against the best.” Correct.

Hamdicaps for next year are handed out based on points, and importantly a point differential. Watch the Red Bull team tank, Vettel will not win all of the next races and maybe Webber might get a look in.

Sorry, but he's a petulant, bitter little b**ch who had the championships handed to him on a platter. Its not hard to be the best when you got the best car on track and a compliant team who will back stab there own team members to put him there. He could win a dozen championships and my opinion wouldn't change of him or make me think he's a good driver.

Look I hate the bloke as much as anybody... But where do critics draw the line. 5 championships? 6? 7? He just 'gets' modern F1 racing. We are in an age of highly dynamic race strategy. His ability to influence the race strategy of those around him through his speed at the start of the race and his ridiculously high qualifying average, makes him untouchable at the moment. But next year, the exhaust/defuser era will be over, and it's back to square 1. Bring it on! Lewis/Merc to win. -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.

Is Vettel a better driver than Mark Webber? Yes! Same team same car proves it. IMO put Alonso or Hamilton or Raikkonen in the Red Bull car and I would guess Vettel would end up being the number 2. All better drivers than Vettel.

He has the tools, he has the weight and height advantage over Webber to make him stand out. Grand Prix racing is a curious game. I remember old Nigel Mansell could not take a trick in his entire career then he had this dominant car and a half wit for a team mate and won pretty much every single race for the season. If he did not have that season he would never have been a champion and had all that success. It is all timing, being in the right seat in the right season. That is 90 percent of it. Vettel is fortunate, he is short so his height does not bugger up the aerodynamics like Webber does. His weight is low so he gets a leg up every lap. As an example try racing a decent kid in a go kart as a 100 kg adult to see what weight does to a racing car. What should happen is the drivers should have to add weight depending on their size like the jockey's in horse racing do. Now you have the problem where some of the bigger drivers have eating disorders because they cannot eat as it adds too much weight to them.

One of the greatest Formula One drivers of our generation. Arguably the best in the post-Schumacher era.