Indian Grand Prix: A Champion is crowned!

The almighty young German has done it and becomes the youngest Formula One driver to win four World Championships and, perhaps even more impressively, back to back. He did it in style, his race engineers selecting an unconventional and, for all appearances, very risky strategy. At the end of only two laps, Seb was in to change his tyres from the quick-to-degrade soft tyre, to the far longer lasting hard tyre. It put him back in seventeenth place, with a large proportion of the field to pass. He managed it and ended up first, with only his teammate to challenge him. That challenge immediately evaporated, when Mark Webber's Red Bull was damaged to the extent that he was forced to stop.

Vettel made his championship win all the more special by adding a touch of the historic and emotional showmanship that we all love in Formula One. He has been fined €25,000 for his exuberant antics on the start/finish straight, but let us be grateful that we spectate on Formula One at a time when drivers are willing to incur some discipline for the sake of creating iconic footage and memories. Sebastian doing donuts, waving to the crowd and bowing down to his superior machine, will resonate for years to come.

Now, let me try and resolve some of the debate regarding whether Sebastian Vettel is one of the greats. I've heard people, TV pundits and the like, discussing whether greatness comes with merit and achievement or moments and instances of supreme performance. Also, whether the car does the winning, or the driver. When considering these questions, the same two names pop up, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Senna, despite achieving relatively few accolades, did things that were unconventional, memorable and at times downright scary. He was the man who, before pit lane speed limits were introduced, shot through the pits at racing speed, at Donington Raceway, to gain a handful of places. On another occasion, during qualifying for the French Grand Prix, he threw his racecar in to the wall on the start/finish straight, just so that he could exit the corner and cross the line a split second faster than everyone else. Alternatively, Michael Schumacher has achieved what almost everybody would agree is greatness, by winning seven world titles, five of which were consecutive.

The point is, do we have to pick one definition? Why can we not place them all under the same umbrella of 'Great'? As for the question of the car or the driver, it has always been the same throughout the history of Formula One. Some doubt Vettel's quality, claiming that he is in the fastest car. Interestingly, Schumacher was in a vastly superior racecar when he dominated for five years. That was clear, because his teammates, Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine, were both ahead of the rest of the field, albeit still in Michael's shadow. In contrast, Sebastian Vettel's teammate, Mark Webber, regularly finishes outside of the top three, so its fair to say that he isn't getting anywhere near the superiority out of the car that Seb is. In my view Sebastian Vettel is one of the best there has ever been and it will only be a matter of time until that is the common consensus.

The Indian Grand Prix was chaotic, mainly as a result of the very poor soft tyre, which scattered the strategies all over the place. It meant that, by around lap ten, the only people that could have predicted the outcome were the strategists. There were some good fights in the final few laps, although none involved the four time world champion. He was well out in front and cruising to victory. The remaining races are sure to feature even more nail biting action. But the top prize has been claimed and has gone to a worthy winner.

The final act...

So, the season is over, and what an ending! As the beginning of the Brazilian Grand Prix approached, it threatened to be a bit of a foregone conclusion. However, that threat was rather weak, as the misty rain refused to abate and more rain was forecast for the rest of the Grand Prix. Everybody knew what was required of them if they were to achieve their various goals, but all of that seemed to be dropped by the wayside, as the cars exited the fourth corner, leaving the reigning World Champion facing the wrong way.

Vettel went in to the race with very little to do, relatively speaking. He was leading the championship by fifteen points and his race should have been straight forward. Alonso, on the other hand, had a far more difficult prospect ahead of him. Sat on the grid, he was aware that he needed at least a third place finish, with Sebastian finishing out of the points, if he was to take the championship.

When the red lights went out, Vettel was sluggish getting away, whilst Alonso had his usual storming start and found himself up in third, exactly where he needed to be if he was to take the title. Then, the unthinkable happened for Red Bull, as Bruno Senna ploughed in to the side of Vettel, on the fourth corner, spinning him round and resulting in half a dozen cars appearing to hit each other and Sebastian. To everyone, including the Red Bull team and Vettel himself, it looked like the young German was out of the race. Seb's race engineer was heard saying, over the team radio, "stay out to see how the car behaves, we cannot fix it". Unbelievably, a few minutes later, Vettel was banging in fastest laps and the damage, although extensive, appeared to be cosmetic only.

As the race progressed, rain, safety cars and pit stops continuously mixed up the pack and it became difficult to judge how the final positions would shake out. Many drivers had excursions off the black stuff. Kimi Raikonnen bounced through the mud, in true Finnish rally style, whilst Alonso, overran the first corner more than once. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button looked like they might cap off the season with a truly inspired result, until Lewis and Niko Hulkenberg had an unfortunate coming together on the first corner. Hamilton's race, season, and time at McLaren were brought to an abrupt end.

It was Jenson who managed to take one final win for McLaren, which was sort of poetic, since he is the driver that is staying with the British based team. Alonso did everything that could have been expected of him, and similarly Massa was resilient and ever the team player. His reaction on the podium summed up his sheer gratitude at being gifted another shot after the accident that saw him suffer a traumatic head injury a couple of years ago. Fernando was exceptionally graceful in defeat. He looked, understandably, disappointed but full of thanks for the efforts of his Ferrari team. All of the drivers were fantastic ambassadors of the sport in Brazil, but the worthy world champion was Sebastian Vettel.

It was a tense final few laps, that saw Sebastian climb to the required position and Alonso struggle to come near to a flying Button. It was nail-bitingly obvious that a failure or a mistake, from almost any of the cars in the top ten, could have swung the championship outcome in one or other's favour. However, Vettel was the deserving winner. The Brazilian Grand Prix made it two races in which Sebastian had found himself plumb last, for whatever reason, and had then worked his way up to the front of the pack to take valuable points.

This season has been record-breaking, unpredictable and utterly, utterly thrilling. Nobody would have guessed that this season could be as good as last season and yet it was arguably better. Red Bull Racing and Sebastian Vettel have done it again, despite having a relatively poor start to the championship fight. Congratulations to them and thank you to all the people who have followed my blog throughout the season. I wish the racing could continue right on through the winter, and for us, the spectators, we have to wait till next March. However, for the teams, the race does continue, seamlessly on, as they strive to design, develop and innovate faster than their rivals, all in preparation for the 2013 season...