Sabastien Vettel F1 Champion, But Did We Really Get the Showdown Promised?

Patrick AllenNov 14, 2010

OK so I’m an Alonso/Ferrari fan, I make no secret of that fact. I realize that by criticising the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix I’m leaving myself open for easy criticism. However, to be perfectly frank, as F1 fans, can you really sit back and state that the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was anything other than a disappointment?

Sure, 2010 has been a roller coaster season and the final event was tantalising, and yes, having Vettel go into the race an outsider and finishing Champion will look great for the statistics. However, I honestly believe that the circuit at Abu Dhabi ruined any chance of an interesting show.

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It all started so well. The scene was set and all that was left was for the lights to go out. I haven’t felt excitement quite like it for a long time.

Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton got away cleanly, but Fernando Alonso was cautious off the line. This let Jenson Button through and stuck Mark Webber in a Ferrari sandwich.

The cars sped away in formation but the excitement remained. Then, suddenly the camera switched to a fight between Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher. The Mercedes of Schumacher was close but couldn’t make it past. Just behind Schumacher, Nico Rosberg sensed an opportunity and put his car into the mix.

Embarrassingly for Mercedes GP, the smallest tap from Rosberg sent Michael into a spin and straight into the path of Vitantonio Liuzzi. Lap one, two retirements and out came the safety car.

The positions at this stage were as follows:

Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Alonso, Webber, Massa, Barrichello, Kobayashi, Sutil, Kubica, Heidfeld, Buemi, Hulkenberg, Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, Rosberg, Petrov, Alguersuari, di Grassi, Senna, Klien.

As the front-runners struggled to warm their tyres under the safety car, many of the back markers decided to get their pit stops out of the way.

The safety car pitted on lap 5 and the race restarted. Despite the cars being close, there simply weren’t any opportunities for overtaking manoeuvres.

On lap 12 Webber was forced to pit having struggled on his tyres for some time. The Red Bull mechanics did their best in hope of achieving something similar to Hungary (when Webber was brought in early, which was vital later in the race).

However, when Webber found himself in P16 behind runners that had already pitted, I’m afraid to say his championship looked dead.

Now this stop sent alarm bells ringing in Ferrari, and I have to admit the team were driven to a crucial error by concentrating on the wrong cars.

Felipe Massa and Alonso were brought in on laps 13 and 15 and found themselves low down with Mark Webber. All attention now shifted to Vettel and the McLarens. Surely they would have to stop soon?

In reality, the tyres were just starting to come back to the front runners and it looked ever more likely that Ferrari had made a fatal error.

So, Alonso and Webber were in their positions thanks to poor team judgements. For either of them to keep their title hopes alive they would need to overtake cars in front of them…. Fantastic right?

Well, if we had been in say...oh I don’t know...Brazil! Yes then this would have been phenomenal. Unfortunately, we were in Abu Dhabi and it seems that although money can buy you a huge flashy venue and lots of "important" guests/spectators, it can’t buy you overtaking places!

By lap 20 Alonso found himself behind Vitali Petrov and frankly screwed. As I say, on paper it all looked so tantalising: for Fernando to be crowned World Champion he had to pass Petrov and Nico Rosberg; if Webber were going to win he would need to pass all three cars ahead of him.

What actually happened was that Vettel and Hamilton stayed out until the gap to Webber and Alonso was big enough to safely stop. A clean stop for Vettel on lap 25 was all the German needed, and he got it.

Hamilton’s job was made a million times worse when he rejoined behind Robert Kubica who didn’t look like stopping for a long time.

So what followed was a wait for Button to stop (which would hand Vettel back the lead) and what felt like endless laps of Alonso and Hamilton trailing Renaults.

Now, Kubica and Hamilton are both superb drivers but you’ve got to ask questions when Fernando Alonso is physically unable to pass Petrov.

Sure enough, Button pitted on lap 40, but could only rejoin in P4. Vettel cruised to victory and a deserved World Title (and that is important, I’m not saying that Vettel didn’t deserve the title).

Yes, I’m a hugely disappointed Ferrari fan, but as I say, I can’t see how this race can be reported as anything other that the most expensive Scalextric track in the world (I say that, but you can at least overtake in Scalextric!).

Had this grand Prix been in Brazil, where Formula One should finish, and had all the events occurred in the same way, I can’t see us getting anything like the same boring show we were shown today.

But, hey, at the end of the day, the sponsors made lots of money, does it really matter what the fans want?

Well done Vettel. I really don’t want to down play the amazing fight back from the German, but I can honestly admit, that although casual fans will be satisfied with this result, I’m left questioning my commitment.

Drivers’ Championship Top 3

Vettel 256 (Champion)
Alonso 252
Webber 242

1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault

2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes

3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes

4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP

5 Robert Kubica Renault

6 Vitaly Petrov Renault

7 Fernando Alonso Ferrari

8 Mark Webber RBR-Renault

9 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari

10 Felipe Massa Ferrari