Ricciardo's pace scared Vettel

Dear friends, I have considered doing a season review article but I have decided against that and will focus primarily on drivers of interest. I will start the series soon and continue to the New Year. In any event, I found an article on the departure of the finger from RedBull with some quotes from Horner. I have posted a few excerpts and as always will introduce my razor sharp wit and artistic license.

“Sebastian Vettel's decision to leave Red Bull was influenced by the pace of his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, team boss Christian Horner says."

“Horner says Ricciardo was "probably a factor" in Vettel's decision. And he said the Australian's overtake of Vettel at the Italian GP was "quite a defining moment for Sebastian".

“Horner, speaking in an interview for the BBC F1 review show, said of Vettel: "He was enormously frustrated after that grand prix"

"It was at a time where after the summer break, knowing Sebastian as well as I do, I could see he was very distracted and it was obvious something was at the back of his mind."

Horner said he believed Vettel had made a final decision on his future between the Italian and Singapore races in September. "By the time he got to Singapore you could see he was a different person," Horner said.

Ricciardo's Crushing Dominance of Seb

Sebastian Vettel v Daniel Ricciardo

Championship position Points Wins Races where 0 points scored
Sebastian Vettel 5th 167 0 3
Daniel Ricciardo 3rd 238 3 3

Vettel has insisted he is "not running away from anything" at Red Bull and that he simply wanted a change of scenery and the chance to drive for Ferrari, where his childhood hero and later friend Michael Schumacher won five world titles.

I think only a stupid child would believe that statement

Vettel finished championship, with Ricciardo third, having been out-scored by 71 points. Ricciardo out-qualified his team-mate 12 times in 19 races.

Horner said Vettel struggled to adapt to the new cars in F1 this year following the introduction of V6 turbo hybrid engines, reductions in downforce and a fuel restriction.

"He didn't like what F1 had become and was quite vocal about it - didn't like the engines, the noise, the way the car felt," Horner said.

"But he got very frustrated the car wasn't doing what he wanted it to do and of course to compound that his team-mate is winning a couple of races and performing at the level he was."

Horner said the banning of exhaust-influenced rear aerodynamics, a technology in which Red Bull had excelled in the previous four seasons, had a big effect on Vettel.

"The rule changes were significant and the two guys who seem to have been affected most are Seb and Kimi and I think taking away the rear downforce has actually been a big factor for Sebastian," Horner said.

"How he generated his lap time was very much using the rear of the car on entry into the slower corners, which was much diminished this year, and that together with the brake-by-wire system had taken away some of the feeling of the braking that he is so dependent on.

"He is such a 'feel' driver that some of those feelings had been muted and it dumbed down some of his performance."

It is refreshing to see Horner say some of these things that a lot of us have said for years. He however took the diplomatic approach, I however do not need to and disagree with Horner’s view about “feel" for the car.

Drivers who have feel for a car have an enhanced sensitivity to its behaviour and extract more from the package than others without this innate ability. What we have been dealt the past 4 years is a fraud of a world champion who cannot drive a car planted to the race track.

That is what it is in a nutshell. The massive advantage the redbull’s had was taken away and we could still see it was a competitive package in the hands of RIcciardo but Vettel was mediocre with it and has been clearly exposed as the mediocre driver he is. I have heard a lot of people talk about the dominance of the Mercedes this year and I firmly believe if redbull had competent drivers like Rosberg and Hamilton in their cars, we could have seen similar dominance.

So ladies and gents, what say you about this fraudulent champion? Me thinks a law suit is in order and I plan to include in addition to Vettel; Horner, Bernie, RedBull Racing, fizzy drinks, Renault and Infinity for ripping us off, the last 4 years.

Who’s with me?