avlon06

Anyone else think hes the next big thing in F1? He's raced in 71 races, 16 wins, 22 pole positions and 1 championship all at the age of 24. Guy is pretty clutch when it comes to driving (minus the Canadian gp.)

SterlingGTVert

I'd say he's already the next big thing, for now at least. He's dominated the last two seasons. Getting to the greatness level of Schumacher...it's possible as Vettle is so young and has a lot of quick seasons left in him.

At first I didn't like him much but he's seemed to mature a lot in the last year or so. He now seems much more appreciative of his team and that's a good sign.

As to winning more titles, think about it...who's his top competition now? His teammate and we know the orders for Webber are to "maintain the gap".
The rest of his top competitors are older guys(except for maybe Hamilton) and the majority of their "epic" drives are behind them.

I don't see any of the other young guns getting a ride with top teams for another couple seasons at least. So it's possible Vettle may get 2 or 3 more consecutive titles before another young driver steps up to give him consistant competition.

All that said...the car/team plays a huge factor(look how competitive Webber has become since moving to RBR). If RBR can't adjust to the new upcoming off throttle rules(which are aimed squarly at Seb and RBR) than who knows. Maranello's getting their way on this one...if you can't beat them...change the rules.

Soldier GT

Yeah man he has been holding his on. Don't know if he's anywhere close to shumacher yet..

MySlowGT

Well keep one thing in mind, Red Bull Racing is by far the best team. Undeniably the best engineer (adrian newey(sp?)), Best downforce, great reliability, great pit stops. One thing that has been pretty clear is that Vettel isn't as great as other drivers under pressure(making mistakes on last lap, and other things that aren't coming to my mind from last season atm.)

He's matured A LOT this year, but really he has had nothing to really be upset about (except in the last race, but that's only one mistake.) Also you have to know that even last season redbull gave team orders to Webber not to pass vettel so it was inevitable that he would win championships eventually.

He also was in the right place at the right time, and got a seat on a soon to be terrific team, which schumacher took much longer to get on a good team.

Is he the next schumacher? Hard to say because red bull is by far the quickest team out there... if mcclaren or ferrari catch up next season then we may be able to make that judgement. But i have a feeling that he'll be a 3 time champion!

I want to see him break Schumachers records for championships wins ect ect ect... just to be able to say i witnessed it


Sorry i know it's an old thread, but this section doesn't appear to be too active

edit: also gotta remember schumacher has a tendency of taking several years to go fast, and Mercedes isn't a competitive team as of right now, so schumacher still might be the current schumacher if he gets a good car!

KenWH

Though I didn't follow F1 much back when Schumacher was winning everything I bet the Maranello(Ferrari) boys were the dominant team then just like RBR is now...

It seems that you always have a team dominate for a few seasons before another team leapfrogs them in pace(or gets tired of losing and hires Newey away lol).

In F1 it's quite hard to compare one driver to another as the cars/team can be so far apart in in terms of quickness and overall team performance. In the end one can only guess how much of the difference we see during qualification sessions and the races comes down to the actual drivers themselves. Imo the cars are by far the deciding factor and as was said...I like the chances of whichever team is signing Newey's paycheck.

Now when you factor in weather...it actually gets a bit easier to see who's got the skills and who doesn't. That's why you see so many of the younger mid to rear pack drivers ending up with good results in the wet...it takes some of the car/team performance factor out.

MySlowGT

It plays havoc with the aerodynamics which is the biggest deciding factor in F1... aside from reliability

I agree with everything you said though.

I would LOVE too see, Alonso, Hamilton, button, vettel, and robert kubica(after he gets back into the swing of things), all in identical F1 cars, and give them each 100 laps to do their best lap at the same times. Just for kicks Felipe Massa too... Hamiltons out bursts are entertaining so gotta have Massa there too!

KenWH

Man I'd love to see all the top 10 drivers in identical cars in some kind of high dollar winner take all shootout. Make it sorta of an euro/F1 version of the old IROC races but with road/street courses instead of ovals.

Lewis has had some interesting race results stuck behind Massa and Schumacher. For some reason those guys' cars seem to suddenly grow in width when Lewis gets behind them lol.

If you want to see a driver have a stroke on track just put Massa and Schumacher in front Hamilton...all in identical cars with huge cash on the line. I bet Lewis' head explodes within a few laps due to the in-ability to get by them.


I sure hope the TX track deal comes back together...Bernie sure didn't have much to say about it this past weekend when Will asked him about it down on the grid before the race.

MySlowGT

lol @ lewis' head exploding! So true though! I love schumachers response to the criticisms though, did you see the interview with the FIA official? He was practically cursing schumacher out about it... it was pretty awesome (even though I'm still a huge schumacher fan)

the TX track is pretty exciting, but I'm more looking forward to the New Jersey street circuit. But then again... Bernie is a master at bringing f1 to under privileged Countries to "boost" their reputation.... how messed up does he think America is? (yes i stole that from fast lane daily .)

Then again his daughters each bought like a $50m house out here so he can't think to low of it!

KenWH

Speaking of future tracks...I don't know about you but I'm sceptical the US will support one track let alone two. I'm afraid one track will wither and die on the vine. If i had a financial $take in either US track project I'd be having nightmares about what happened the last time F1 graced our shores in Indy. After that debacle it's been hard to get one track off the ground here so now they're suddenly wanting two?.?. There's only so much support for F1 in the US and I'm afraid two tracks will spread that support awefully thin resulting in both tracks suffering greatly.

All that aside...I seriously like the unique setting and layout of the New Jersey track with all the elevation change. On paper at least it looks like it will be an epic F1 worthy track.
The only negitive thing I see is the tracks lack of accessibility...relying heavily on boats, ferrys, etc.. I can only imagine that getting that track built will be a nightmare of logistics, bureaucratic red-tape, and balloning cost. However if they can get it built I have little doubt it will do well though.

The Texas track...I'm not so sure anymore as it's location is a bit of the beaten path..especially compared to Jersey. For me Texas is much closer and an easier drive. I'd actually consider taking a long weekend to drive down and take in race there. I'd never consider driving from West TN to Jersey...unfortunately Bernie doesn't give a crap about what I think lol.

MySlowGT

Actually I think that Texas track will do decent financially... I know that Australian V8 Super Cars are going to be there next year (unless they changed that.) Just the fact that it's really the closest thing to Nascar with left and right corners might make it more realistic for most people to understand and get into. Also they have a Nascar driver presenting it so maybe it'll become a bigger sport out here? I think they also scheduled a motorcycle race too... i believe moto gp but don't quote me on that one

As far as Jersey i completely agree with you. I see everything about the income being a nightmare. Horrible accessibility, and i can't remember how much money they need to break even but it was a ridiculous amount, not even including the cost of F1's $50m fee. I see it definitely being a beautiful, and great street circuit, a lot like Monaco... so maybe it'll only be marketed for people with money to burn, and they'll charged $500+ per person ...

I also think Jersey is a disaster because there isn't very many motorsports events that people are willing to pay a lot of money for, so i see it being a once-a-year track (F1) and maybe even a once only used track. We'll see.

It's still exciting too see traditional road racing back in America. Our history (as you said) with international motorsports in more recent years have been miserable to say the least, but if it works out it'll be pretty awesome.

I'm all the way over in California so I'd have to catch a plane, or drive 2k+ miles for either one . Maybe I can go visit my dad for a little while as an excuse to make the trip!