Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso Concede Defeat in 2011 Title Race

The 2011 Formula 1 season must now effectively be over.

Sebastian Vettel has now secured his sixth victory in a season only eight races old (he took second place in the other two) and could now take a three race holiday and still lead the championship.

The FIA enforced changes to the engine mapping rules failed to impact on Red Bull’s qualifying performance and seemed to have little impact on their race pace either in Valencia.

Whether the changes to be introduced at the British grand prix can have an impact remains to be seen, however, Red Bull’s advantage looks almost insurmountable at the stage.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have both indicated that their respective title chances are shot.

After his frustrating European grand prix, Hamilton stated, "It's finished really, in the sense of the championship it's almost over already". At 89 points behind the leader, it’s difficult to see where he could claw back the points.

While Hamilton’s fourth place is a respectable result, he still finished over 46 seconds behind Vettel after looking promising to be much more competitive during practice and qualifying.

McLaren’s usually impeccable intra-season upgrade program has seemingly failed to close the gap so far. Both Hamilton and teammate Jenson Button used their BBC interviews to call for upgrades to fix the rear downforce issues that were apparently to blame for the comparatively poor performance in Valencia.

Alonso was similarly pessimistic about his title chances, despite being buoyed by equaling his best result of the season. The F1 Times quotes him as saying "The championship is not in our calculations, if anyone thinks we can win the championship being eight tenths behind [Red Bull], they don't understand Formula 1."

At 99 points behind the leader, he probably has some justification.

Despite that, Hamilton and Alonso remain the two biggest hurdles that Red Bull need to clear to secure the title.

McLaren have shown throughout the season that they are competitive during the race. Hamilton is clearly faster than Button at the moment, and will doubtless pass him in the title race as the season unfolds.

If he stops running into other cars, that is.

Alonso and Ferrari are also on the improve and while the gap is still significant in qualifying, the Prancing Horses are getting closer to RBR in race trim. They will still influence how the championship pans out, even if the top spot is already stitched up.

It will take something quite remarkable to change the outcome of this title race. Even if McLaren or Ferrari were to take a giant step forward,  Vettel could almost switch off and coast to victory and keep accumulating easy points without ever taking risks.

Just don’t expect him to.

And don’t think for a moment that because Hamilton and Alonso are publicly declaring the title aspirations gone, that they will roll over and hand the championship to Red Bull. There’s still 11 races left and they can’t all be as bland as Valencia, can they?