2011 Formula 1 season: Has Sebastian Vettel done enough to defend his title?
Eight of the nineteen scheduled races of the 2011 Formula 1 season have been done and dusted and so far, Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel has been able to sit on the podium in each race.
The defending champion has hardly put a foot wrong in the 2011 season so far due to which he has been able to win six races and came second in the other two. Vettel has a lead of 77 points from the second driver, McLaren’s Jenson Button.
Vettel’s aggression in the opening half of the 2011 season has provoked two of the championship chasers, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, to give up hopes of winning the 2011 title.
Therefore, Vettel has a psychological edge over the two contenders which will help the German further in the 2011 season.
Theoretically, the German has won the 2011 Formula 1 season although 11 races are still to be contested. Vettel can easily afford a two-month vacation from now on and when he will join the Formula 1 arena in Belgium he will still be leading by 2 points,
given Button wins the next three races which is also a question mark for McLaren.
Vettel is already being regarded as winner in the 2011 season because the same kind of situation developed in 2009 when Button won six of the first seven races and went on to win the title without even winning a single race afterwards.
Counting to Vettel’s advantage are two things- one his mammoth lead and second no other team is still looking faster than Red Bull. In the first few races of the season, McLaren were right up on the tail of Red Bull while Ferrari were struggling for pace.
But now as Vettel’s lead is stretching with every single race, Ferrari have stood up and are fighting with McLaren thereby leaving Vettel laughing at the top spot.
Even if Vettel does not win a race, which is nowhere near possible as he has still the fastest car on the grid, he can easily defend his title in the 2011 Formula 1 season.
The only thing that can cast a dark cloud on Vettel’s performance in the 2011 Formula 1 season is that the clampdown of Blown Diffuser gives a reliability issue to the Red Bull team.
Only if Vettel is unable to finish some of the upcoming rounds, it is then that one of the drivers might think that the German is catchable. However, the effects of the Blown Diffuser are still to be witnessed but the Red Bull camp is confident that the
early exit of the Diffuser is not going to hurt them.
Red Bull have taken full advantage of the Blown Diffuser technology which is believed to give them half a second advantage in qualifiers as well as in the race. All the eight pole positions of the 2011 season have gone to Red Bull.
Nevertheless, Vettel is the champion statistically and only needs to finish races in top ten positions in order to keep his scoreboard ticking.
Nevertheless, the first of the next 11 races without the Blown Diffuser will be held in Silverstone and it is there that the future of 2011 championship is expected to be decided.
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