Loved, hated and booed: Sebastian Vettel
Formula One fans of the 80’s and 90’s will
not go one day without raving to you about the greatness of Senna or
Schumacher. But there are also fans who will tell you otherwise about these
drivers when you’d think ’Senna and Schumacher? That’s just not possible’.
Michael Schumacher was a class act. True,
he was in the right team and Ferrari had all the possible resources to produce
a world championship winning car. But the charisma and passion that he had made
him a stand out. He was a 7 time world champion and his dominance of the sport
from 2000-2004 erased the element of his brilliance and wrote the ‘over-achiever’
tagline on him, which gained him more so called ‘haters’.
Remember when Ayrton Senna won a race after
another? He stamped his mark at every circuit no matter what the weather and
temperature. And of course! The fierce Senna and Prost rivalries, which remain
etched in every formula one fan’s mind. Senna
is now undoubtedly the greatest driver of all time, because of what he was- a
great racer and a charismatic and fun loving world champion. He was loved for his ability and talent. But
his dominant years at McLaren, and his ruthless and unforgiving rivalry with Prost
(whose legend still lives on), had occasionally branded him as the ‘bad boy’ of
Formula One.
In the Vettel timeline, the Malaysian grand
prix this year has been a black mark in his career. His ruthless behavior toward
his teammate and the impulse to win every possible time wasn’t appreciated by
many. That was just the beginning of the season; Vettel continued to win 6
times after that incident. And just when the entire fraternity dropped the
topic from going any further, the fans picked it up on a different level- an
unprecedented, but yet existing method-by actively booing him.
As a repercussion of what happened earlier
this year in Malaysia, fans around the world went on some sort of mission to
boo every time they see Sebastian Vettel on podium. Though most of the drivers,
pundits and some fans were against this, it never stopped them from displaying
their emotions when it comes to seeing the same man win over and over and add
to that, his unacceptable behavior. Travelling by the same “tour bus” as
Sebastian called it yesterday, are anti-Vettel fans who’ve been causing this
pantomime from Canada to Singapore.
Just like the earlier golden ages of F1,
when dominance made a driver unpopular, this year Vettel is the victim of all
those boos for an incredible job that he’s doing behind the wheel of a solid
package. His dominance has made the last 4 seasons predictable and monotonous,
but Vettel has nothing to blame that on. He’s happy to win, and laughs off all
those unnecessary boos.
"It's ridiculous, these people don't
understand what the guy is doing," Lauda told Sky Sports. "I take my hat off to his
performance because the guy was leading the race from the first lap onwards,
could have lapped everybody and if I could choose I would give him the world
championship today for this drive. For me he was outstanding”
Being a top driver means hard work and consistency
which Vettel has already reached, and has impressed almost everybody with his
form. But just like they say, quite often a pantomime villain becomes a hero. The best attribute of this
26 year old, is that he never lets it get to him. He’s here to win, and he gets
the job done.
Like he says in his own words:
"I didn't give them the
most exciting races but on days like this I really don't mind. As long
as they keep booing, we're doing a good job."
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