Will Sebastian Vettel continue his championship streak in 2013? – Formula 1 Special
The 2012 F1 season ended with Red Bull Racing winning their third consecutive constructors’ title along with their ace driver, Sebastian Vettel, winning his third drivers’ championship in a row.
Red Bull has become the fourth team to achieve such success in F1 following Ferrari, McLaren and Williams F1. On the other hand, Vettel has become the youngest triple champion and now needs only two more titles in a row to break the record of five straight
championships of his fellow German driver, Michael Schumacher.
There are many other competitive drivers on the grid who will be looking forward to break Vettel’s winning streak. Even Vettel himself admits that securing the championship is becoming more difficult with each new season. The 2012 F1 season had five more
championship winning drivers besides Vettel competing against each other. With Schumacher retiring from the sport in 2013, only five such drivers will be left. Vettel will have to look out for his rival from both 2010 and 2012, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Lotus
F1’s Kimi Raikkonen who was closest to Vettel and Alonso in 2012 and last but not the least, McLaren’s Jenson Button who will be taking the lead of the British team in 2013.
The 2012 F1 season has turned out to the most difficult season for Vettel. He was seen struggling with the RB8 in the beginning of the season and was not even close to Alonso who was dominating at that time. His chances of defending his title were fading.
However, come second half of the season, Vettel got the car back under his control and set a streak of Grand Prix victories in four races; from the Singapore GP to Indian GP. Vettel took the lead from here and maintained it until the Brazilian GP to defeat
Alonso by three points.
Having won the championship and also surviving a controversy surrounding his overtake manoeuvre in the season finale, it is fair for him to relax for a while. However, with the pre-season testing approaching near, he must now be setting his goals for the
upcoming season. Vettel is most likely to continue his championship streak because he is continuing with the same team and same engineers. He has a good understanding of the cars designed by Red Bull’s chief technical officer, Adrian Newey. It took him some
time to understand the car in 2012 which even Newey has admitted as he blamed the new exhaust system but he was quick to take the lead once he was back in control of his car.
On the other hand, the cars themselves will not be changing much going into the 2013 F1 season. Vettel has a fair chance of continuing strongly with the RB9 but still there is an element of risk with the new tyre selection by Pirelli for the new season.
However, if Red Bull can provide him with car free of reliability issues, it will not take him much time to adjust to the new tyres given he has already tried them in Brazil.
Despite all the facts, F1 is an unpredictable sport. If Vettel is determined to keep his title for a fourth year then others are as much determined to break his streak. He has proven his driving abilities in 2012 for which he was criticised before but only
the new season will tell if he can prove himself even more.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s and do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
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