Sebastian Vettel
Discussion
A visibly rejuvinated Vettel putting his new Ferrari onto the podium first time of asking, while the Red Bulls languish. It's looking like an inspired move, akin to Hamilton's in '12/13.
I wonder how this'll develop over the season with Renault progressively spending their tokens.
It'll also be interesting to see if Ferrari can keep Williams at bay when they're back in full force with Bottas, who arguably whould've had that podium spot today had he competed.
Yes I realise we have the 'Kimi vs Seb' thread, looking at the bigger picture here
I wonder how this'll develop over the season with Renault progressively spending their tokens.
It'll also be interesting to see if Ferrari can keep Williams at bay when they're back in full force with Bottas, who arguably whould've had that podium spot today had he competed.
Yes I realise we have the 'Kimi vs Seb' thread, looking at the bigger picture here
Durzel said:
Let's be honest here, if you stuck Vettel in a McLaren he'd be nowhere. Neither would Hamilton. People talk about the drivers like they make a huge difference, but at this level they just don't. Most of the drivers on the grid are within touching distance of eachother in my opinion, I think even the backmarkers would probably be tough to beat in the 2015 Mercedes.
It speaks volumes how people are hyping one race where arguably Mercedes made mistakes in an unconventional climate that this is somehow a sea change for the sport, or that Ferrari is going to be keeping them honest all year long. The reality is next race Mercedes is still going to have the power difference they've always had.
Regarding drivers, The key factor seperating our multiple championship winners from our pay drivers and back markers is consistency. It's points over a season which maketh the champion. In a single race though? Yeah why not. I can't disagree with much of your first paragraph. It speaks volumes how people are hyping one race where arguably Mercedes made mistakes in an unconventional climate that this is somehow a sea change for the sport, or that Ferrari is going to be keeping them honest all year long. The reality is next race Mercedes is still going to have the power difference they've always had.
The second, though- What I feel is significant about the [TONY2OR4 LOOK AWAY NOW] Vettel victory at the weekend is that everybody, myself included, believed that the Mercedes was so efficient (and powerful) that they could go a second a lap quicker and had more pace in their back pocket just in case. Malaysia showed that, in those admittedly quite exceptional conditions, this is not the case. Vettel was able to more or less gap Hamilton for the second half of the race even with Hamilton being encouraged to push and being told he's on for the win.
Ferrari, in my opinion, have clearly made a lot of progress over the winter and they demonstrated this throughout the weekend.
McNish did a lap comparison between Kimi and Hamilton in the BBC's qualifying coverage and it revealed that the Ferrari was actually faster in a straight line than the Mercedes so your assertion that the Mercedes has 'the power difference they've always had' is probably false.
Are we going to see Ferrari challenging for wins all season? I don't think so... but does everybody still believe that the mercedes is still untouchable to the tune of a second per lap with more pace in hand? I don't. This shows that we don't necessarily have a two-horse race for the championship and this makes everybody much happier.
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