Sebastian Vettel's Singapore Victory Keeps Him in the F1 Title Hunt (Barely)
Sebastian Vettel's blood-red Ferrari shone brightly in the Singapore night on Sunday, en route to his third victory of the 2015 Formula One season.
Vettel appeared to toy with his nearest pursuer—former team-mate Daniel Ricciardo—as he bolted to an early lead in the Singapore Grand Prix and then held it through two safety car periods, including one when a fan darted across the track in front of him and then casually strolled past several other cars before climbing through a gap in the protective fencing.
Despite Mercedes' season-long dominance, Vettel's win keeps him peripherally in the championship hunt, 49 points behind Lewis Hamilton—who retired with a turbo problem, per ESPN F1's Laurence Edmondson—and now just eight points adrift of Nico Rosberg.
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With six races remaining, Vettel remains a long, long, long shot for the title—but there he is. In the last five races, his results are: third, first, DNF (which could have been third, had his tyre held on for another lap), second and first.
However, despite that impressive run of form, Vettel has gained exactly nothing relative to Hamilton in those five races, with both drivers scoring 83 points.
Asked on the podium whether Ferrari can catch Mercedes this year, Vettel responded: "If we have more weekend like this, yes. But all we have to do is look after ourselves, maximum attack and then what they do is not in our hands. We still have a small chance, maybe we can make the impossible possible; we'll definitely go for it."
After starting the season with a perfect finishing record at 11 straight grands prix, Mercedes demonstrated at the last two races that they are not, in fact, bulletproof. Rosberg retired from the Italian Grand Prix when his engine failed spectacularly. In Singapore, television viewers heard Hamilton pleading with his team to find a solution to what he thought was a throttle problem as he dropped to the back of the field before eventually retiring the car.
Even so, the defending champion still has nearly two race wins (worth 25 points each) in his pocket, and no one on the team seemed overly concerned on Sunday night.
"It's still a long way to go and I know I lost some points today, but I was fast and on form and I will make sure I bring that out to Suzuka to fight back!" Hamilton said, according to a team press release.
His boss, Toto Wolff, said, "You cannot write it off and say it was a one-off. On the other hand you cannot say we are terrified now; then you go into panic mode and that would be inappropriate and wrong," per the BBC's Andrew Benson.
Hamilton is still in control, but Vettel and Ferrari's form will certainly cause some concern at Mercedes, though they may not express it publicly.
The Scuderia has already surpassed team principal Maurizio Arrivabene's goal of two victories this year and, even if Vettel does not chase Hamilton right to the wire in 2015, there is every reason to believe Ferrari will present a strong challenge to the Silver Arrows next year.
Vettel's two most recent victories have come at the Hungaroring and Marina Bay in Singapore—two circuits with similar characteristics, including lots of low-speed corners.
With plenty of fast turns, next weekend's race at Suzuka in Japan will be another measure of Ferrari's improvement. If they can legitimately challenge Hamilton and Rosberg there, it will be a sign they are not dependent on certain track types or perfect conditions to take the fight to Mercedes.
More likely, though, the Mercs will be back in their familiar positions at the head of the field.
With Mercedes winning 26 of the 32 races since the beginning of F1's hybrid era in 2014, it is tempting to get overexcited when anyone produces a different result. But the team from Brackley is still well ahead of everyone else.
As Vettel's team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, said in the post-race press conference, "I think everybody's surprised where they've been all weekend and who knows what happens in the next race."
"I guess they should be back in Suzuka," Vettel continued. "If they're not, in all honesty we don't mind."
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