The summer break can’t have come soon enough for Sebastian Vettel: he goes into the summer with the same thought as a lot of people; isn’t it funny how much can change in a year? We always knew this season would be difficult for Red Bull but no one could ever expect that over halfway through the season he would be forty-three points behind his teammate and two wins to nil down.
From the first time the red lights went out in Australia it just wasn’t going to be his season. Three retirements later and a few bad strategies on Red Bull’s part we reach the summer break. He really must be wondering why he just can’t catch a break in a year which started so well when his partner gave birth to his daughter. Yes, the cars this year are very different and it’s taken him quite some time to get used to them, but that just isn’t a good enough reason anymore. Hungary really is the perfect example, he started the weekend so well, ahead of his team mate in Practice and a great qualifying lap which put him on pole for a few seconds, and then race day came. He was running well in second, only not to have the chance to pit just as the safety car came out, a wrong setting on the restart meaning he lost two places and massive spin which left him millimetres away from the concrete wall and while all this is going on where his team mate? Out front winning the race.
The suggestions that he has lost any skill is pathetic; the race against Alonso in Silverstone proved that, but people forget he has absolutely nothing to prove. Sebastian Vettel is the driver who came back year after year to win four titles in a row and a stunning nine races in row. He is always supreme after the summer break so my hope is that he does that again this year and is back fighting at the front, exactly where he belongs. To keep his head in this season is one of the reasons he’s an example of the perfect sportsman. To keep going, not lose focus and not to give up shows incredible mental strength.
This is also the time of the year when the traditional ‘Silly Season’ starts. Could he leave Red Bull? My opinion? Absolutely! What he’s done there has been sensational, but perhaps come 2016 it wouldn’t hurt for him to get a fresh set of surroundings, to have a new challenge and a different type of team. By that I mean Ferrari or McLaren. I can’t see why Mercedes would want to change their current line-up, so that closes that particular door for him, although I’m sure he’d give anything to be in that car right now.
Vettel will be back and when he is it will be back in a strong way to reiterate to the haters just why he’s the four-time champion.
‘You can make a list of negatives for all drivers but Vettel arguably has fewer than anybody’ – Gary Anderson
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