Sebastian Vettel is in danger of losing his way in the championship race as his inexperience is starting to show. This year he was seen as a serious contender from the off but he has struggled with the role and the limelight. Two things have gone against the young German. Fortune has not been kind to him, and he has struggled to cope with the improved pace of Mark Webber, his Red Bull teammate, who has really raised his game this year.
Vettel had a miserable race in Belgium, colliding with Jenson Button's McLaren-Mercedes and later with Vitantonio Liuzzi's Force India. It was a case of Vettel trying to force the situation. With a more experienced head on his shoulders, he would have been wiser to show patience and wait to see how the race developed. Instead he threw away the chance of at least 15 points and scored nothing. What we saw on Sunday was a young man trying too hard and possibly over driving.
Vettel has had a strange season. He is in the fastest car in the field, has taken seven pole position, yet is now a distant third in the championship. He has missed out on a lot of points, having won only twice in the 13 races so far. He is still learning and this is a new experience for him, but he is learning the hard way and needs to realise you cannot afford many mistakes if you are to be the world champion.
This is genuinely the first time that he has had to deal with these high expectation and I think that has played a part in how his season has panned out. When he won his first race, back in 2008 in Italy, it was as an underdog with the Toro Rosso team. Last year Red Bull were the upcoming team who surprised everyone with their competitiveness and he was the fastest man in the team. However, it is important to say that it has not all been his fault this time round. He has suffered bad luck with unreliability and lost out on victories in the first two races in Bahrain and Australia because of that. I think still think he can be champion this year, but it is going to be very tough for him.
He had been running third in Belgium when he collided with Button. His attempted pass was clumsy and he said afterwards that he had misjudged where Button was going to brake and changed direction to try and avoid him. Instead he lost control and smacked into the side of the McLaren, forcing Jenson out and putting a serious dent in his dreams of retaining the title. Vettel was very honest about his driving afterwards and we need to remember that he is considerably younger than his rivals, He only 23 and this is just his third full season in the series.
However, this and his other mistakes pushed him back to 15th where he finished out of the points and he is now 31 adrift of Lewis Hamilton in the championship, with six races to go. He still has time to get it back into the title race but he cannot afford to make any more costly errors. He could also be in danger of being asked to assist Webber if he does not improve in the next couple of races. The Australian has on occasions out-raced and out-qualified his younger teammate, and judging by Vettel's mistakes it is not something he has taken well.
It reminds me of the 2007 season when Fernando Alonso cracked when he had Hamilton as his teammate at McLaren. The Spaniard was a double world champion, but he could not handle being beaten by the British rookie, and eventually the partnership fragmented with Alonso forced to return to Renault. If the scenario does open up in two or three races time that Vettle is asked to help Webber's title challenge should the Australian still have a reasonable points advantage over him, then I am sure it will be difficult for him to take.
But I am sure he will do what the team asks and it will be another experience from which he could learn. Webber drove a solid, uneventful race in Belgium, and took advantage of the collision between his teammate and Button to finish second and take 18 points putting him just three points behind Hamilton. Johnny Herbert is a former Formula One driver who completed in 161 races, winning three times
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