mikeyg123 wrote:davidheath461 wrote:mikeyg123 wrote:
Vettel clearly stepped up a level towards the end of the season in years gone past. I fail to see how Vettel not being able to do that this year changes that.
2010 - he just stopped making silly mistakes and started doing what he should have been doing all season (i.e. winning from pole).
So he stepped up then?
2011 - no step up in performance after the summer break.
He was performing brilliantly anyway
2012 - The Newey upgrades at Singapore/Japan is clearly what brought him back into contention. 3 front row lockouts for Red Bull between Japan and India which was massive in a season like 2012.
He didn't even have the quickest car towards the end of 2012. He still managed to win 4 races in a row in the last 6 races. He won one the whole rest of the season. He clearly stepped up.
2013 - Tyre changes played into Red Bull's hands. He was also performing very well before the summer break.
He won every single race after the summer break. It's not like Webber was finishing second every race either. Again,
clear improvement.
I don't really see how it's clear that Vettel stepped up in previous years.
What would have needed to happen for it to be clear to you?
2010 - This is the only one you could argue. His performance level didn't really improve though in terms of outright speed. He just started doing what he should have been doing all season.
2011 - so no step up in performance? glad we agree.
2012 - Of those 4 races, he had a dominant car in 3 of them (Japan, Korea, India) while in Singapore Hamilton retired infront of him, and he choked in qualifying after dominating practice. You have to kidding on this one. It was clearly the Newey upgrades which propelled him to those wins.
Perhaps you should read this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/20118852
2013 - I guess we were watching different seasons. You seem to be judging Vettel's performance purely by his results. His driving performance was great before and after the summer break. What allowed to win every race after the summer break was the tyre change. Webber's managed to haul himself back up into 3rd place in the WDC following the summer break despite 3 DNFs. He finished on the podium in all the other races.