Hats off to Vettel

[TheOriginalGT40]

Good to see Kubica at the track, but what a potential star that BMW have in Vettel, and at just 19 it looks like we could have some exciting drivers arriving in the coming years.

Move over Ralf and Co, and let the new kids on the block shine

[stephen300o]

Why?, he didn't do that well, he finished behind a Redbull and a Toyota, I expected better.

[skinny]

he was caught out by early brakers at the first corner, avoided them and then drove a solid if unspectacular race with some decent lap times. BMW seemed to miss a trick by using two sets of the slower harder tyres compared to everyone else.

i've seen him in testing and i'm impressed by the kid - he will go far i reckon.

[Jungles]

The youngest person to ever score a point in his debut Grand Prix.

FP1 = 4th (2 pos behind NH)
FP2 = 11th (6 pos behind NH)
SP = 2nd (3 pos ahead of NH)
Q = 7th (2 pos behind NH)
R = 8th (NH DNF, ahead of Fisi, Rosberg, and Wurz in similarly competitive cars)

Vettel only had from Thursday to prepare, which is almost no time at all, and he doesn't have much experience in high P/W race cars as most of the field do. In fact, he is probably the least experienced driver on the field with only 4 years of serious single-seater racing, and not even a whole season in a tier-2 category (ie. FR3.5 WS):

Vettel's career said:

2007:
Formula Renault 3.5 World Series, 1st. (Carlin, in progress, 5 races)

2006:
Formula 3 Euroseries, 2nd. (ASM)

2005:
Formula 3 Euroseries, 5th. (Mücke)

2004:
German Formula BMW, Champion

2003:
German Formula BMW, 2th.

-2002:
Karing

He still has plenty of room for improvement. Getting 8th in his first ever GP, with an upper-mid team is very impressive. With his lack of experience and car, the best result that could have been expected was 6th, and worst could have been DNF. He did very well, IMHO.

We need more races to make a proper judgement, but he holds promise.

Edited by Jungles on Tuesday 19th June 01:18

[jellison]

I really wanted him to win (as a 19 year old in first race) - fed up of hearing all the tossers on the ITV Wankin* off over Hamilton - even his name is starting to annoy me. He has not really done anything wrong - but It is all we bloody hear about - he is dam fast - but as with F1 the car are so difficult to get close in or are (if outside the same team just not equal). Please - come on lets have someone else Win. RALF

[skinny]

it was vettels first drive since FP1 at Kuala Lumpur (10 weeks without driving an F1 car), the car having changed a fair bit in the meantime. also, as the normal race engineer was not allowed a visa into the states, vettel was working with a rookie race engineer too. so all in all not a bad job.

Edited by skinny on Tuesday 19th June 14:18