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Formula One is a tough business. In its illustrious 70 years, drivers have come and gone; some found great success and glory, while others were chewed up and spat out, not gracing a race track again.
For Sebastian Vettel, a driver who has seen almost unparalleled levels of success and glory, things are not going the way they should be. He’s won four world championships, taken 52 grand prix victories and cemented himself as one of the greatest drivers to turn a wheel in an F1 car.
Yet the Vettel we’re seeing now is a shadow of his former self. Having not won for almost a year and facing a tough battle from his young hotshot team-mate Charles Leclerc, the German is stuck in a slump with no way to pull himself out.
As each weekend passes, that pressure ramps up another notch. And, as that pressure heightens, mistakes begin to creep in.
Last weekend’s British Grand Prix saw Vettel locked in a scintillating battle with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. In an attempt to get past the Dutchman, Vettel tried to make his way through into the left-hander at Vale, but misjudged his braking distance and piled into the back of Verstappen.
He spoke to the media after the race and took full blame for the incident.
“Obviously, he was a bit faster, closing quite quickly and passed very easily before turn 15,” Vettel said. “But then he ran a bit wide so I thought I could sneak back. I thought there was a gap, which then turned out not to be there. It’s a misjudgement from my side.”
That was the fourth costly error from the German this season and the latest in an even longer string stretching back to the second half of last year.
A spin in the second race of the year in Bahrain while battling Lewis Hamilton cost him a shot at victory, and a crash ahead of the Monaco race hampered his chances there.
His mistake defending against Hamilton in Canada, the resultant penalty becoming the subject of an appeal to the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), again cost him the grand prix win, while his crash with Verstappen at Silverstone meant he lost the opportunity to claim the final podium spot.
Each of these errors costs results and points. He sits fourth in the driver’s standings, 13 points adrift of Verstappen.
As he spoke to the media after Silverstone, he looked distant. His gaze was focused on anything but the room full of journalists seeking answers; away from anything to do with Formula One.
Canada was a defining moment for Vettel, giving him plenty of food for thought about where his future lies and every race thereafter tips the scales one way or another.
In the race in Canada, he said over the team radio: “They’re [FIA] stealing the race from us.” He initially refused to attend the podium ceremony, but changed his mind – not, however, before swapping the first- and second-placed number boards by Hamilton’s car to the roaring approval of fans at the track.
His disputes with officials and other drivers go back many years. At the Turkish Grand Prix in 2010, he was involved in a collision with team-mate Mark Webber, whom he called “stupid”.
Six years later, at the Mexican Grand Prix, he was involved in a tight battle with the two Red Bulls of Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Verstappen went off the track, but emerged back in front of a furious Vettel, who demanded he be let through.
“Move! Move for f**k sake,” said Vettel. When the race director, Charlie Whiting, took no action, Vettel said on the team radio: “You know what, here is the message for Charlie: F**k off! Honestly, f**k off,” Vettel screamed. “Honestly, I’m going to hit someone.”
He apologised afterwards and avoided any further punishment.
At the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, it was Hamilton who was blindsided, as the German punted into the back of Hamilton’s Mercedes, causing damage to both cars. Believing Hamilton to be at fault, Vettel pulled alongside his rival and deliberately drove his car into the side of Hamilton’s.
Vettel received a rather lenient 10-second time penalty in the race and once again apologised afterwards.
F1’s managing director, Ross Brawn, was part of the Ferrari “dream team” – with Vettel’s hero, Michael Schumacher – which stormed to five consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ titles in the early 2000s, so he knows exactly what it takes to succeed at the Italian marque.
“It’s a difficult moment for Sebastian as he probably feels under a different kind of pressure than he’s used to,” Brawn said. “He must be asking himself in which direction he should now go given that, again this year, his chance of putting Ferrari back on top is slipping away.
“Sebastian is an incredible driver, as his record shows, but, at the moment, he needs to keep calm and to rely on support from his team, which I’m sure he is getting.”
