gums

I think that Vettel's creidibility will clearly suffer from this move, and he has already admitted to regretting his actions. A bad play on his part.

multi21

What do you propose RBR do? Fire Vettels? Sit him for a race? There is not much they can do.

Remember Vettel is in a contract year and can walk away at the end of the season. Mark is not the future and I believe Vettel calculated this in his decision. Very much Senna/Schumacher like.

What do you think Senna would have said if told to hold position behind Prost?

multi21

bTW, I'm not defending Vettel. I'm more of a team guy, just throwing out what may be going on

morganabowen

That happened in 2010 with these same two drivers

jbossolo

^ Vettel took out both cars on that one, and promptly blamed Webber for it. He was backed by his team, too. Spoiled little bitch, in my book.

Eifeler

Used to like Webber, even felt bad for him in Turkey. Lost respect for him when he neglected to tell his team about the shoulder injury. Then when he decided to go wheel to wheel with Vettel in Brasil he IMHO earned his azzbag status.

I have no doubt that Vettel could have caught and past Webber with or without team orders to turn down the power. Does anyone really think that Webber didn't turn the power back up when Vettel made it clear he was coming through?

Also agree with comparisons to prior champs. If RB tries to hold Vettel back, he'll be at Ferrari next year where he knows he'll be #1.

JustinL

This is the same assessment I made. The situation was FA was slow, but keeping pace with the front of the pack with his broken wing. The wing had hung on for 90% of the lap. The track was going to be dry enough for slicks in 2-3 laps. Pitting costs 30s of time including the in lap and out lap. That leaves 2 options: Either pit for a new nose and stay on inters (it was way too wet to baby slicks), then come in again in a couple laps later for slicks. That would have dropped him 30s back into heavy traffic. Or, lose 3 seconds a lap for a couple laps and come in for a new nose and slicks at the same time. The risks are the wing coming off and getting lodged or getting the meatball flag.

morganabowen

You are seriously mistaken if you think that Ferrari would put Vettel ahead of Fernando Vettel has proven that he is an outstanding driver with the best car on the grid; however, what would he do if he had to drive the 4th best car or the 5th best car on the grid?? He has a long way to go before he can challenge Alonso for the best driver on the grid

GT3 Techno

...

perfectlap

Might want to let Ferrari know that, they already have a #1 driver they are in love with.
I don't think anyone is taking Vettel if it means losing Alonso.

I wouldn't even rate Vettel a top three driver. I'll take Hamilton, Alonso and Raikonen all day long. All three are better under pressure and on overtaking, Vettel is not in the same class. Actually, Vettel is like a whinier Alonso without the overtaking ability.

p.s.
As to disobeying team orders. I'm not sure I disagree with SV. He's the #1 driver. If he loses the title by a point BECAUSE of team orders it's almost as bad as winning the title because of team orders. I tink this is a great reason to get rid of the consructors title altogether. SV and MW battling it out in those laps was as good as racing is going to get in these aero grip cars.

Tedster

Vettel may be an employee of Red Bull but he is also looking out for his future, perhaps at another team. As we have seen recently, every point is precious. I am not condoning it, just explaining his motivation. Teams and fans will forgive some bad behavior (unless somebody gets injured) if you win races and Seb does that more than anyone in recent memory.

perfectlap

FIFY

murrayg

I watched this with my son, age 10, and a SV fan. He has raced karts for 3 years and has one Provincial Championship (2012) behind him. He was quite confused by all this and asked 2 questions:
1. If you race, but don’t race to win….Are you a racer??
2. Did this happen years ago and if so, What would Senna do??
Darn’est things kids ask!

Gord.

perfectlap

1. You are a racer with a job. As Fangio once said "to finish first you must first have a ride that can win".
2. McLaren had more confidence in Ayrton's overtaking ability than apparently Redbull has in Vettel's.

dbf73

not give him the latest and greatest tweaks for a race, short fuel him so he has to dial the power way back just to finish - or tell him that even if he has plenty so he has to wave Webber by. Screw up the timing in sending him out in Q3 so he ends up a few places down from where he might have been. There are a lot of things they could do that wouldn't hurt the team much but send the message.