Vettel winning few fans
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The way Sebastian Vettel has gone about this season has lost him a lot of the support that naturally gravitates toward a highly talented and exciting driver.
Most pundits rated Vettel as ultimately quicker than his teammate Mark Webber - and the more likely champion.
But the Australian has surprised many with his pace and consistency, including, it seems, the 23-year old Vettel and their Red Bull team. Despite strenuous denials, it showed favoritism toward the German, probably borne of having considered him the better chance for title honors.
When the pair collided at the Turkish Grand Prix in May, Red Bull's Helmut Marko was quick to blame Webber - presumably because he had the temerity not to move out of the way when Vettel swerved at him - and others in the senior management sat on the fence (after giving poor Sebastian a quick cuddle). At the British race in July, they took the updated front wing off Webber's car to replace the broken one on Vettel's.
Webber's response to both incidents was a resolute stance without histrionics. At Silverstone, he let the team know forcefully (and the media indirectly) he would not accept being No 2 - avoided the festering media story by driving to his nearby home and taking his dogs for a walk - and then won the race. This straight-talking refusal to be pushed around married to race-winning speed has gained him tremendous support.
By contrast, Vettel's championship challenge has dissolved into a sea of errors, hand gestures and grimaces. At the Hungaroring in July, Vettel "fell asleep" behind the safety car and was penalized. Before that, at Silverstone and in Germany, he allowed poor starts to become disasters.
Webber showed the correct response in Belgium last weekend. He dropped from pole position to fifth on Lap 1 but stayed calm, wrapped his car in cotton wool and came home second.
Vettel's afternoon at the Spa-Francorcamps circuit was punctuated by more misjudged overtaking maneuvers, crashing into Jenson Button and then allowing himself to be tapped - and his tire punctured - by Vitantonio Liuzzi. Add in a stop for a new nose cone and then a drive-through penalty and his afternoon was never going to produce medals.
Late in the race - as rain began to fall - Vettel's engineer tried to save the day with a bold switch to full wet tires when the front runners were on intermediates. When the expected heavy rain did not materialize, the surly German chastized his engineer on the team radio (broadcast to some 500 million people worldwide): "It's not wet enough!" Sebastian needs to add a little grace to his undoubted pace.
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