Sebastian Vettel is 2012 F1 World Champion

It is a known fact that the current Formula1 grid is one of the most competitive ever to have graced the sport. When the 2011 season started, the lineup had no less than five world champions in Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel who, amongst them, held a mind-boggling 12 titles. Then, there were Felipe Massa and Mark Webber both of whom came agonizingly close to becoming a world champion in the previous years and Nico Rosberg who has all the makings of a champion, if given the right car and the right circumstances. As the season progressed, the much-hyped rookies Paul Di Resta and Sergio Perez also proved that they are up there with the very best through their skillful driving.

To make such a mighty competitive grid look highly uncompetitive needs some really special skills combined with a car that can complement those skills. And, that is exactly what Sebastian Vettel and the Red Bull RB7 had, the latter courtesy master-designer Adrian Newey. And for most of the races this season, they did make the entire field look highly uncompetitive. Now, digest these facts. With 15 of the 19 races over this season, a Red Bull car has started on pole in every single race with Sebastian Vettel being the wingman in 12 of them. Excepting 6 races in which Jenson won 3, Lewis won 2 and Fernando won 1, Vettel has won the remaining 9 of them. With such figures, its hardly surprising that Vettel has officially sealed his second consecutive world title with 4 races remaining.

But, it was quite an anti-climax for Vettel in the recently-concluded Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, as the RB7 that was untouchable in his hands for most part of the season, was beaten fair and square by the McLaren of Jenson Button and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. The latter two along with Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber, are fighting for the second place in the world championship, which is proving to be more interesting and is where the real action is with four top drivers vying for the spot. It was clearly apparent long back that Vettel was running away with the 2011 championship as he, in that RB7, was a class apart and flying above the rest of the field.

In a sport where your teammate is considered to be your fiercest rival, Mark Webber has had a tough year as Sebastian Vettel has literally crushed him and, in all probability, his confidence too. To be fair to Webber though, it was his Red Bull that always seemed to have all the problems early on in the season. In doing so, Vettel has become the youngest ever multiple world champion in Formula1’s history, a record held by Fernando Alonso until now. For Sebastian Vettel though, this is just another record in an impressively long list that constitutes youngest ever world champion, points scorer, podium finisher, race winner, race leader, pole sitter and what not.

But, for the sake of racing fans across the world and for the overall benefit of the sport, I sincerely hope and wish that the 2012 world championship would be a close battle like what we saw in 2010, an epic 5 way fight that went until the last lap of the last race. But, one thing is for sure. If the Vettel-RB7 duo continue to be even half as deadly as they are right now, my wish is going to remain just that as the Vettel train would continue chugging along. Let us, for the moment, assume that we are not witnessing the beginning of an era of Vettel dominance, one that has the potential to become as ruthless and boring as the Michael Schumacher era. Don’t mistake me, that would be great for Vettel and a showcase for his talent but a total disaster for the sport.

Images Source: www.redbull.com