This year’s titles have eluded Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari, due to a string of errors, but, as Andrew Benson explains, the partnership is still gaining momentum and they have the key to unlock success over the next three years…
IMAGINE an alternative history of 2017, in which Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel had maximised their potential and did not toss away huge swathes of points over a hatful of races.
IMAGINE if Vettel had not had his moment of madness when he drove into Lewis Hamilton’s car behind the Safety Car in Azerbaijan. Or if he had not veered so aggressively across the track at the start of the race in Singapore, triggering the multi-car accident that took out both Ferraris, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.
IMAGINE if Ferrari had not suffered the identical manifold failures on both cars in Malaysia, which left Vettel at the back of the grid and forced Kimi Räikkönen to retire from the race before it had even started. Imagine if Vettel’s engine had not suffered a spark-plug failure on the grid in Japan.
What would it all mean?
IN THAT ALTERNATIVE HISTORY, Vettel could conceivably have gone to the Mexican Grand Prix leading the championship by around 30 points, rather than trailing Lewis Hamilton by 66. Even taking out the driver errors and just focusing on the reliability issues, Vettel would have been within one win of Hamilton and the title would still have been a realistic ambition.
There, in raw numbers, is the scale of Ferrari’s failure in 2017, the cataclysmic nature of the way they have shot themselves in the foot, and thrown away their best chance of winning the championship for the first time in nearly ten years. On one level, it demonstrates the gulf between Ferrari and Mercedes: how far the Scuderia have still to travel before they win another title. But on another it shows something else – how much progress they have made since last year, and, by extension, how close, paradoxically, they are to achieving their ambition.
Bu hikaye F1 Racing UK dergisinin December 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye F1 Racing UK dergisinin December 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.
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