F1 Season Review – Vettel shows his Mettle and Button was right on the proverbial

Well it seems, thanks in large part to the protests of several of my friends, I should start with Sebastian Vettel and not the legend from Somerset that is Jenson Button. Originally I thought to myself what else is there to say except that Vettel won… a lot… again.

However, on closer inspection it would seem somewhat foolish to belittle Vettel’s achievements in that way. This season he won the World Championship by 122 points, he won 11 out of the 19 races, he was on pole for 15 out of those 19 and of the 8 races he didn’t win he came second. His performance has been absolutely remarkable and not only that he has consistently been awesome all the way through the season. Not since the Michael Schumacher Ferrari days has one driver been so dominant throughout a season, and comparisons like that say all they need to about the man behind the wheel. A lot of credit to the performance of Vettel has to be attributed the Red Bull Renault which he’s been driving the past two seasons. Christian Horner, the team manager, must take a lot of credit, every interview I’ve ever seen him he has come across as an exceptionally bright and not only that friendly character. Having the support of someone like him not to mention driving in a car designed by Adrian Newey, easily the best technical designer in the sport, Sebastian Vettel had exactly what was required to win another championship. Lets not take anything away from Vettel though he outperformed his team mate Mark Webber consistently throughout the season and, as his proven by his pass on Alonso in Spa, he is an exceptional battler.

So let’s take a look at the British drivers. It was thought by many, including Yorker Sports Deputy Editor Andy Pakes, that Lewis Hamilton was going to be the closest rival to Sebastian Vettel this season. However, it did not turn out that way. A series of penalties in race, a number of grid drops post race, numerous crashes with Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and, much to the anger of myself, crashing into Jenson Button in Canada did not help Hamilton’s bid to win a second World Championship. For Hamilton it has been a particularly difficult season, both on the circuit and off it. However, next year I expect him to be back to his best and, fingers crossed, he’ll stop having more accidents than Mr Bean.

For Hamilton’s teammate and all-round nice-guy Jenson Button it’s been a season of excitement. After a relatively disappointing 2010 season by his standards he set about rectifying that in 2011. Button completed the most overtakes of anyone all season and he proved his mettle in changing conditions. In Canada Button managed to win, in my opinion, the best race ever to take place. Button made five pit-stops, had his teammate crash into him, served a drive-through penalty for speeding under the safety car – dropping him to last place – as well as sustaining a puncture from a collision with Alonso, and made 27 on-track passes to win the longest Formula One race in history. It was an absolutely spellbinding display of perseverance and sheer talent; he overtook reigning World Champion Vettel on the last lap of the race and he said after the race that it was his best performance ever. Button consistently scored well throughout the season and proved to be the only man able to stop Vettel retaining his title even earlier. I have high hopes for 2012.

In a season where it was the teams at the top that took most of the plaudits let us make a B-line to discuss another Brit who had an excellent season in 2011. Paul Di Resta driving in the Force India car scored 27 points finishing in 13th position. Coming into Formula 1 from a background of Formula 3 and Touring Car Racing has often proved to be a huge challenge to many new drivers. However, Di Resta seemed to relish the new competition and put in some solid performances in a car which, lets face it, wasn’t ever going to accrue its driver many points. The most notable drive was his 6th place in Singapore. He had a solid season and will hope to build on this next year.

Overall the British drivers had good seasons; obviously Jenson Button was the stand-out performer with his three race wins, four second places, and five third places. However, Lewis Hamilton will be keen to put his poor season behind him and set about closing the gap on Button. There is nonetheless an exceptional German talent who, at the moment at least, seems invincible, standing in their way. Frankly it’s hard to look beyond Vettel for next year’s champion.

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