Vettel is and will become the greatest driver in the history of F1?

[António da Cunha]

I am chocked by this topic. People already considering Vettel the greatest ever? Greatest than pilots like Fangio, Senna, Schumacher, Lauda and many others...? That is what I call of dark humour.

It is not Vettel that is the "greatest", but Newey is! Wihout Newey... RBR and Vettlel would be eating rubber in the middle of the pack. Sometimes less is more, by that I mean that from the present... drivers like Alonso, Raikkonen and even Hamilton are better than Vettel.

Lets see Vettel winning with a not so great car.. and then we can start giving him some sort of "great driver" title.

 

[Rui Santos]

It takes a lot more to be "the greatest ever" he needs to have charisma and get the crowds with him, which he doesn't have, he's just a nice kid with a big smile on his face and is a good driver in the best car by far, nothing more... Senna is and will be the best ever, not for how he drove and what he conquered but because F1 today is a childrens joke, a car going on rails all the time with stupid regulations, compared to those years where the driver was 75% and the car 25%, now the car is 90% and the driver 10%. Put Alonso, Raikkonen, Button, Hamilton, Grosjean or Rosberg on Red Bull and you'll see them winning the same way...

 

[Sun Levi]

When will people realize that you can NEVER compare drivers from different generations, There is no greatest "ever". Vettel is definitely one of the greats in the sport, even if he has had the best car, it's man and machine at it's best.

 

[Rui Santos]

When will people realize that you can NEVER compare drivers from different generations, There is no greatest "ever". Vettel is definitely one of the greats in the sport, even if he has had the best car, it's man and machine at it's best.

Yes you can, driving a formula 1 car nowadays was never so easy, car makes all the difference and all you have to do is to sit and drive it fast, old school drivers worked on car with mechanics and they had so much more skills and madness few years ago that i doubt that those kids of today will ever do something similar in those beast cars on dangerous circuits where a simply bad engaged gear could determine your death. Anyway watch the Senna movie/docummentary and try to see if there's comparison with someone else in F1, if you see his funeral you'll understand a bit better who he was and what means "the greatest ever"...

Schumacher was also a great driver, his statistics talk for him but even him was nothing compared to Senna, you need to have "something" more Watch the Top Gear Senna docummentary and watch there a lot of nowadays drivers including Schumacher saying who in their opinion was the "number one driver", i won't tell you right now just to be a surprise...

 

[Sun Levi]

Rui, I completely agree and understand what you mean, I've seen all the footage you've mentioned Formula 1 in Senna's era was definitely hardcore, it's crazy how they drove those cars back in the day, Madness. But you can't blame the drivers of today for having the cars they have now, sadly the cars are easier today, way way easier it seems... I wish they were still racing the cars from the 70's and 80's, everything back then was just so much more entertaining.

I guess what I was trying to say is that, there's a "Greatest" for each era, I just don't think it's fair to compare Sennas era to Vettels era, obviously Sennas era should be more respected because of the car they had to drive, back then it's about your skills to handle the car, where as today it seems that the car does all the work, but like I said, you can't blame the drivers today for having the car they have.

 

[Cote Dazur]

Amazed that 30% would say yes in the vote, as to me, Seb is not even the best driver of the last season.

 

[MarkVenom]

Vettel is a lousy potato farmer, uneducated, arrogant and without class. If he manages to go to aanother team, build it up and become champ then we can talk. For now he is a sidekick to Adrian Newey. Like so many others. Hill sucked ass too-so did Villeneuve. Both were ONLY ok because Newey built the cars. Next year, with Rory Byrne fully responsible for the new Mercedes, this will change dramatically. Vettel will be happy to win one race. That is my prediction.
He lacks the fighting spirit under pressure of Mansell, the charisma of Senna and the class of Schumi-Period. Shittel go home!

 

[MarkVenom]

then also look at schumacher, so many underhand tactics to achieve what he achieved, but not the best driver on the grid.... back to the question, the greatest driver ever? i think everyone can agree that is Senna, and will be for a long time

unless your basis the opinion on stats alone

Schumki outclassed Senna. He would have beaten him in 1994 IF it wasn't for the dreadful accident in Imola. Then we would not have that discussion. Senna had the most mystique and is a legend BECAUSE he died. He was awesome. I loved Senna, but sorry he was not able to built a team like a Schumacher, who is without doubt the greatest the sport has ever seen. End of story.
In fact Schumi was the last truly great driver. Now we have cowboys. No class-no fun-no nothing. I have a feeling though as if next year will see the rise of a new superstar called Nico Rosberg. Mark my words.

 

[Chris]

Next year, with Rory Byrne fully responsible for the new Mercedes, this will change dramatically.

I think you mean Ferrari.

Whilst I think your post is a bit harsh on Vettel, there are some points I agree with. Like Adrian Newey being mostly responsible for Vettel's domination. I think Vettel's dominance is 70% down to the car. But the other 30% is all him, and the reason he wiped the floor with Webber.

Let's look at some statistics from last season, keep in mind that Webber is no slouch, and I do support him as he's a fellow countryman:
- When both Red Bull cars finished, Vettel was ahead ever single time 15 out of 15.
- Of the 1038 laps where both cars were active, Vettel was ahead of Webber for 921 of them (88.7% of the time).
- Vettel beat Webber in qualifying 17 times.


This graph shows just how much of a beating Webber took from Vettel this past season:

I think 2013 was his best year. He hardly made any mistakes and when the car was not as competitive early in the season, he made the most of it; never finishing lower than 4th.

Vettel is able to get the absolute maximum out of the car. I don't know how you can say he's arrogant. Every time he wins or takes pole, he always seems very humble.

I don't support Vettel, but I respect him.

 

[bigboy1112]

Lemme get this right - you are dismissing his last 7 years of hard work and 100's of thousands of laps because of a few bad laps of a gimmick race?

Unfortunately, I cannot take your post seriously

depends on what you think a driver needs. Romain Grosjean has incredible pace, maybe one of the best in f1 right now, looking at his performance the last couple of races. Vettel is winning because he is with Red Bull, and especially newey. Ayrton Senna will always top my list unless things change really badly

 

[The Smooth 05]

i think he isn´t even the second best driver, because Hamilton is, in my view, the second best.
If Lewis is driving a competitive car he is the best, but all-around Alonso is the best, because he is delivering good results with mediocre cars.