Sebastian Vettel's party is in danger of being postponed. The Indian Grand Prix, the fourth-last round of the F1 world championship, may not take place and not because of bad weather. On the eve of the weekend scheduled for Sunday 27 October 2013 at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, 50 kilometres from New Delhi, the Indian Supreme Court will decide whether or not the Grand Prix will take place. This decision is unprecedented in F1 history and comes just hours before the start of the competition. The request for annulment was filed through the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) instrument provided by the Indian Constitution to protect the public interest. The appeal to India's highest court was filed by a firm of lawyers alleging that the event's organisers (Jaypee Sports International Limited) failed to pay certain fees due for the event held in 2012. Recently, the organisers themselves raised an alarm over the poor crowd response for the Grand Prix in which German Sebastian Vettel will most likely be crowned 2013 champion. Compared to the 96.000 sold for the first edition, and the 65.000 sold last year, this year fans bought fewer than 30.000 tickets. With the Formula One World Championship now decided in favour of Sebastian Vettel, the Indian Grand Prix weekend looks like just the first of four transitional races, with the drivers' heads turned to 2014. The first who prefers to look to the future is Fernando Alonso. From the paddock in Greater Noida, the Spaniard sends yet another signal to Ferrari:
"The driver alone is not enough, you also need a good car. I have faith in the team, as we have the necessary tools and motivation for a winning mentality, which will also be reinforced with the new names that have arrived at Maranello and a possible new philosophy. I am only 32 years old and it is not my last year in my career, so I am sure I will have other opportunities. I would certainly like to win more championships. In recent years I have finished the World Championship in second place three times, which could be considered a sad thing when you are so close to victory. But I am very proud of what I am doing. I feel I'm in the best shape of my life and I'm riding at my best right now".
Alonso explains:
"The motivation is still high and is always there, although it could have been a little higher if we were fighting for the World Championship. Even when I go go-karting with my friends I give 100%, because I don't like to lose! So you can imagine how high the motivation is in a Formula One Grand Prix. So for the rest of the season, we will try to score as many points as possible to help the team reach its current goal, which is to finish the Constructors' Championship in second place. Vettel on the defensive? If it was the last race of the season, he might be more conservative, but with four races to go, it's only a matter of time before he wins the title: I think he will try to win all four remaining races, he has the potential to do so. My aim is to do my best race, and try to finish in the top three to enjoy the podium ceremony, the trophy and the champagne. As for Vettel, it is up to him to decide which is the best country to celebrate the victory! I am counting on doing well in Brazil, Ferrari has always done well there and the rain could open up a scenario of possibilities for our team".
Alonso, however, does not mind the Indian track:
"I really like this circuit, especially the second and third sectors with many fast corners. I think all the riders like it here. For the future, we will be happy to come back if it is on the calendar. Vettel stronger than Schumacher? To be honest, I never got close enough to Sebastian".
For his part, Sebastian Vettel hopes to close the file as early as Greater Noida, clinching his fourth world title with a win:
"I want to win in India and celebrate the World Championship. It would be a great relief because, at the end of the day, we have worked hard for that throughout the season".
And adds:
"Obviously we are in a very good position, with a good gap in the championship standings, but I don't come here telling myself: OK, I have to do it. The objective is to win the race, then we know that this would be enough to win the title. This is something very special and I don't think there is much point in talking about it in advance. We have to concentrate on the race and get the maximum. It is nice to have this opportunity but, as I have said many times, the most important thing for me and the team is to win the championship, no matter where or when".
When the title is within reach, Sebastian Vettel is also complimented by Mark Webber, his team-mate with whom he has often been at loggerheads, but who admits that he is aiming for success in India:
"He is having a fantastic time, sometimes winning tightly and sometimes less so. This year he dominated and certainly did an incredible job. He has been very strong since the Pirelli tyres, he has no weaknesses with these tyres and is able to make the most of them. I think what made him strong was also his ability to get the best out of the package. He has managed to win so many races by always making the most of his potential, that's his best quality. Seb has been doing phenomenally well lately, he has won here in recent years and he is always quite strong. We need a perfect weekend to try to get him off the top step of the podium. That will be my strategy".
Back at Ferrari, Felipe Massa is more focused on 2014, which will see him far from Maranello. The Brazilian was quick to deny the rumours that he has already agreed with Williams:
"I have nothing to say at the moment, when the decision comes, I will comment. For sure I am talking to several teams, including Williams. I will go to a team that has the possibility to make a good single-seater and not because I have a sponsor, I am not a paying driver. I will go because of my experience and what I have achieved in my career".
As for Sunday's race, Felipe confirms his desire to honour his adventure with Ferrari to the end:
"I want to try my best to get as many points as possible, because the team is fighting for second place in the constructors' championship, and that is very important for us. That's the only thing on my mind. For our results, we cannot blame the tyres. We weren't the fastest car on the track before they made changes to the tyres, so we can't blame them for where we are in the standings and the performance of the car on the track".
Few people remember this. But Ferrari's great human and relational crisis, perfectly symbolised by Fernando Alonso's attitudes, began right here, in India, exactly a year ago. There was an almost full moon that weekend, and tempers were hotter than a set of Pirellis halfway through the Grand Prix. Ferrari had posted on its website an interview with the chief designer, Nicholas Tombazis, announcing important aerodynamic developments for the final sprint against the wrecking ball that was Vettel's Red Bull Racing. Alonso, visibly unnerved by the World Championship trend that was beginning to shift in his rival's favour, attacked hard: we talk, the others do. It was an escalation. On Saturday, after qualifying went badly, Ferrari attacked its driver: he had the potential for the front row, he said (and instead he placed fifth). The Spaniard got upset and for a few seconds thought he was damaging the team by telling them that the engineers had not developed the car since the start of the season. Then he limited himself to a long conversation with Stefano Domenicali.
A conversation that, however, did not put an end to internal hostilities, which since then - amid purges, controversies, statements and misunderstandings - have continued to this day. Because if there is one thing evident, on this Indian afternoon, it is that Alonso wants to start from scratch. It may be the somewhat decadent atmosphere around - the Indian event is the most decadent of the year, the 2014 round has been cancelled from the calendar, and an unlikely risk of cancellation hangs over Sunday's race, given that the organisers have not paid the 2012 fees - it may be the inevitability of Vettel's big party, but Alonso presents himself in the press room with an almost resigned tone. Ready to willingly face even celebratory questions about his rival. A British reporter asks him, sadistically: you who have raced with both of them closely, is Vettel or Schumacher stronger?
"To tell you the truth, I have never seen Vettel closely enough".
This is the Spaniard's excellent response, which then explains his state of mind further:
"I am not disappointed with these four years at Ferrari. When I arrived it was a dream come true for me. Then I had the chance to compete to win the title three times out of four. It didn't happen, but it can happen. We found a team and a driver who did better than us. But now we start from scratch. New cars. New rules. Zero points for everyone: I'm in a great team, I'm thirty-two years old and this year I've done some of the best races of my career, there are all the premises to come back and win".
In the meantime, however, Vettel will win. On Sunday he only needs a fifth place on a circuit that has always seen him dominate: in the only two races held so far, in addition to two pole positions and two victories, he has always been in the lead from the first to the last lap. Friday, October 25, 2013, the first practice session took place in dry conditions with an ambient temperature of 30 °C, and a track temperature of 32°C. Vettel set the session's fastest time with a lap of 1'26"683, almost two-tenths of a second faster than teammate Webber. The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg set the third fastest time ahead of Renault driver Romain Grosjean who was fourth fastest. Hamilton set the fifth fastest time in his Mercedes. The two McLaren drivers were sixth and seventh, Jenson Button ahead of Sergio Pérez. Felipe Massa and Nico Hülkenberg set the eighth and ninth fastest lap times respectively for Ferrari and Sauber. Valtteri Bottas in the Williams completed the top ten. Alonso's Ferrari car was plagued by a gearbox problem; this restricted him to completing only six timed laps, and he was 12th overall. The second practice session was held in similar weather to the first; the only difference was a slightly higher peak track temperature of 40 °C. During this session, Vettel set the fastest lap of the day, a 1'25"722; Webber finished with the second-fastest time. Grosjean finished up with the third fastest time. The Mercedes drivers were again quick - Hamilton in fourth and Rosberg sixth.
They were split by Alonso; with teammate Massa in seventh. Räikkonen set the eighth fastest time. The McLaren drivers ran slower - Button in ninth and Pérez tenth. Williams driver Pastor Maldonado suffered from a loose wheel nut which deflated his right-front tyre, as a result of an earlier pitstop. Williams were fined €60.000. Always and only Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel was also the fastest in the second free practice of the Indian Grand Prix. At the fourth year in a row spent admiring the exhausts of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull, Fernando Alonso suddenly finds himself the object of criticism, some of which is also branded. The heaviest of all comes, admittedly somewhat treacherously, from Michael Schumacher, the man whose place in Ferrari history he should have taken some time ago - at least in the powerful imagination of the fans. For the fourth year running, however, the plan will have to be postponed. And the voice of the former German driver comes from Germany like a stamp certifying failure. The occasion comes through an interview granted by Schumacher to the Bild to celebrate his heir - but the real one - Sebastian Vettel, the man of records who will win his fourth consecutive world title here in India (barring any sensational surprises that would delay everything by just a week).
Honeyed words, those used by Schumacher for Vettel, which however end up overwhelming the Spaniard. So while the young Seb ends up being portrayed as an absolute champion, a man of crystalline class who has collected even less than he could have ('In terms of popularity, if he had won with a team like Ferrari he would certainly be better loved'), Alonso emerges as a difficult boy, who has complicated life for himself, and has put rocks in his path with his own hands. An already obnoxious statement, which Schumacher makes even worse by arguing it to the point of becoming a kind of epitaph.
"The problem is that Fernando is not so good at being a team player".
Now, you know how certain dynamics work. As long as you win you find no one to attack you, as soon as things stop turning the dams of resentment open up. Fernando knows this well, and is waiting for the wind to change, perhaps as early as next year, when with the regulations reset to zero the distances between the single-seaters will also be reduced. On this point, even Schumacher agrees:
"The traditional racing teams guarantee greater public affection, but in this era none has managed to do better than Red Bull".
And yet while waiting for the situation to change, the Spaniard can only register how the weather situation on his head has changed. As demonstrated by the words, perhaps even more accurate, of another former Ferrari driver, Gerhard Berger. He too lets slip some not-so-nice words towards Alonso:
"I always put Vettel behind Alonso but I think that at the moment Alonso is too focused on himself and therefore has become inconsistent in his performance. And while he is thinking about himself, the other Sebastian is winning one title after another".
Clear words that show how variable is the opinion about drivers in F1. Only three months ago Berger himself had declared something quite different: the problem was not the driver, he assured, but the team.
"Fernando has been waiting three years for the title but has always found Red Bull in his way. So what he has to do is simple: do everything to go to Red Bull".
In the meantime, the Indian Supreme Court is postponing the examination of the case involving the organisers of the Indian Grand Prix, scheduled to take place at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, on the outskirts of New Dehli, until the week after the Grand Prix. The race will be held regularly. The Supreme Court received a complaint in recent days against the organisers of the race for allegedly failing to pay taxes on tickets sold in the first edition of the grand prix in 2011. The petition asked the Supreme Court to cancel the grand prix. Today, according to local media reports, the judge decided to postpone consideration of the case. Saturday's weather was again dry for third and final practice session, with an ambient temperature of 28 °C and a track temperature of 35 °C. The start of session was delayed by 20 minutes as the medical helicopter was unable to take off, due to poor visibility caused by smog. The Red Bull drivers were again quickest - Vettel setting the fastest time, a 1'25"332, over half a second faster than Webber. Alonso was able to improve his pace and set the third-fastest time. Hamilton and Rosberg set the eighth and tenth fastest times respectively; they were separated by Button. Saturday afternoon's qualifying session was divided into three parts. The first part ran for 20 minutes and eliminated the cars from qualifying that finished the session 17th or lower. During this session, the 107% rule was in effect, which necessitated each driver set a time within 107% of the quickest lap to qualify for the race. The second part of qualifying lasted 15 minutes and eliminated cars that finished in positions 11 to 16. The final part of qualifying determined the positions from first to tenth, and decided pole position.
The session was held in dry weather; the ambient temperature was 30 °C with a track temperature of 39 °C. Vettel set the fastest time in the second and final parts of the session, which clinched him pole position with a lap of 1'24"119. Vettel was joined on the front row by Rosberg, who was nearly eight-tenths of a second slower. Ricciardo was the fastest driver not to advance into the final session, qualifying 11th; his best time of 1'25"519 was nearly a second slower than Vettel's pace in the second session. Grosjean (Renault), Jules Bianchi (Marussia), Caterham drivers Giedo van der Garde and Charles Pic and Max Chilton (Marussia) failed to advance beyond the first part of qualifying, and thus completed the final rows of the grid. In the first part of qualifying (the only section in which all drivers took part), the entire field was covered by just over two seconds. To the casual observer, these might appear to be qualifications like any other. Instead, on closer inspection, they were something different. And that is the perfect miniature of what has been happening on the track all year. And it is symbolic, to say the least, that such an admirable summary was staged on the very eve of the race that, in all likelihood, will officially sanction Sebastian Vettel's entrance - in fact, it has already happened for some time - into the Formula 1 mythos. What happened is quickly said. Everyone interpreted the day in their own way, following their own philosophy, their own attitudes, taking into account the means - mechanical and otherwise - at their disposal. And so, while Fernando Alonso, aware of the F138's limits, opted for a hyper-strategic solution, Vettel staked everything on his instinct and his Red Bull Racing's vocation to dominate.
Translated into track terms, the Spaniard, worried by the speed with which the Soft tyres (the ones with the highest performance) wear out, preferred to do the decisive part of qualifying with the Medium (the slowest), condemning himself to an anonymous eighth place. He sacrificed a front row start - the Ferrari's potential was second to third - in pursuit of a bigger advantage for the race. The German, on the other hand, did the opposite, mashed the accelerator to the point of almost breaking through the car, set the fastest lap ever in the short history of this circuit, and took pole position. Who the track will prove right is objectively impossible to say now. But there are those who swear that this time Alonso has seen it coming. Not least because the Spaniard knows perfectly well that he will not have to race against Vettel - who is a Martian at the moment - but rather against the two Mercedes drivers: at stake is the second position in both classifications (the one in the Constructors' championship is worth a lot of money). Rosberg and Hamilton (second and third on the grid) have chosen Vettel's strategy, but they have no Red Bull Racing at their disposal and if the Spaniard's calculations are correct, they will have a hard time of it today. Of course it would have been even more dangerous for them, the situation if Alonso had executed his plan more precisely. Instead, as all too often happens to him at the decisive moment in qualifying, his talent blacked out for an instant: and the usual small driving error in the last sector cost him at least a couple of positions. Awaiting the race.
"If the soft tyres go wrong, we can fight for victory".
Fernando Alonso hopes he has chosen the right strategy. The Spanish Ferrari driver, eighth on the grid, will start on medium tyres. The Spaniard and the Australian Mark Webber, at the wheel of Red Bull Racing, are the only ones to have opted for the harder compounds. Brazilian Felipe Massa, fifth in the other Ferrari, will be on soft tyres as will Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull who will line up on pole.
"We thought what could be the best strategy. The soft tyre guarantees a better position in qualifying, the other allows you to set up a race without traffic. The drivers who start on soft tyres will all have to stop at about the same time. We don't know which will be the best choice. We, as a team, have two different strategies: one will be the right one, Felipe and I agree with the team. If the softs go really wrong tomorrow, we might have a chance to fight for the podium and maybe the win".
For his part, Sebastian Vettel says:
"The car felt good all weekend and it just got better as the track improved. The car was amazing; it's a great circuit, I really like the flow of it, especially around the middle sector with the high speed corners. If the car behaves the way you want it to through that section then you're always then going to enjoy it, as we did today. It's a great result for the team; Mark is on a different strategy, so we'll see what the race brings tomorrow. We have been getting a lot of questions about the championship this weekend, but we'll keep doing what we've done in the past, just focusing on every single step - we won't change that for tomorrow, or the next couple of races. We've worked hard to get here and tomorrow will be a long race. With the strategy, I think it's always tricky to do the right thing, but we have a good package so we should be in good shape".
On Sunday, 27 October 2013, at the start of the Indian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel holds the lead, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg; on the second straight, however, the two Mercedes are both passed by Felipe Massa, with Lewis Hamilton losing two positions; further back there is a double contact for Fernando Alonso, first with Mark Webber, then with Jenson Button. Behind the top four are Nico Hülkenberg, Kimi Räikkönen and Mark Webber. Sebastian Vettel comes into the pits to change his tyres at the end of lap two, followed by Fernando Alonso, who also has to change his nose. On lap five Nico Hülkenberg stopped, while Kimi Räikkönen, in a tyre crisis, was overtaken first by Mark Webber and then by Sergio Pérez. The Finn returns to the pits on lap 7, as does Nico Rosberg, while Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton also return to the pits on lap 8. Mark Webber thus moves into first position, ahead of Sergio Pérez, Daniel Ricciardo, Romain Grosjean and Adrian Sutil. From the rear Vettel makes his way through, passing Sutil, Grosjean and Ricciardo within a few laps. On lap 21 the German also passes Pérez, moving up to second place. Sebastian Vette is now 12 seconds behind Mark Webber. Daniel Ricciardo is fourth, followed by Adrian Sutil, Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg. On lap 27 Nico Rosberg returns to the pits, while on lap 28 Mark Webber and Sergio Pérez also return. Shortly afterwards Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel also change tyres. Webber comes back on Medium tyres after just five laps, while Ricciardo makes his first tyre change on lap 33. The classification now sees Sebastian Vettel in the lead, followed by Mark Webber, Adrian Sutil (who has not yet changed tyres), then Räikkönen, Rosberg, Grosjean and Massa. On lap 37 Kimi Räikkönen overtakes Arian Sutil and moves up to third place, which becomes second three laps later, when Mark Webber is forced to retire due to the loss of power in his single-seater. Sutil only makes his first tyre change on lap 42. Kimi Räikkönen, in the final laps, has a crisis with his tyres, changed on lap 7, and gives up several positions, dropping to seventh.
Pérez takes advantage of the situation and, as Hamilton overtakes the Lotus driver, passes the Englishman. Sebastian Vettel wins the Indian Grand Prix, and takes triumph number 36 in his career, thus securing his fourth world title. Red Bull Racing won the constructors' title for the fourth time. In both cases these are consecutive streaks. Ferrari equals the record of 64 consecutive Grands Prix finished in the points zone previously set by McLaren between the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix and the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel getting out of the car, parking it in the middle of the straight and bowing to Red Bull Racing: the image will remain in F1 history because the German is now on top of the world. With today's victory he takes home his fourth F1 world title, like Alain Prost. A hard-won title, because as in 2010 at Abu Dhabi, Vettel also took home the Grand Prix victory that consecrated him number one in the World Championship. And to think that today Seb could have had the luxury of not making it to the chequered flag: he would have been champion all the same, given that Fernando Alonso finished in a disappointing eleventh place after an uphill race: the Spaniard damaged his front wing at the start and after the compulsory pit stop he fell to the back of the field. Ferrari, meanwhile - on the day that Red Bull Racing also won the constructors' title - consoled itself with the fourth place of Felipe Massa who, after a great start, even found himself momentarily in the lead of the race, only to be displaced by the fine race of Nico Rosberg (second) and above all by the Lotus of Frenchman Romain Grosjean, who managed the miracle of making just one pit stop. A champion too. But those who think the battle in F1 this season is over are sorely mistaken. Second place in the Constructors' Championship is still at stake, a position that alone is worth 9.000.000 Euros and which sees a fierce battle between Mercedes and Ferrari.
Hamilton's team, by the way, just overtook the Red and is now on 313 points to Ferrari's 309. While Lotus (at 285 points) could also enter the games. At the age of twenty-six you're standing on top of the most important podium of your career, full of champagne and glory, you've just won your fourth consecutive World Championship, you've entered the legend of the sport from the front door, but when they put the microphone under your nose you find nothing better to do than whine an incredible I miss my car. It might be funny, if it weren't extraordinary. Yes, because the secret of this kid's success is actually all there, in that sentence, in the feelings Sebastian manages to have for that visionary mass of carbon and steel. And that evidently, in some way, are reciprocated.
"I miss my car".
He says and almost seems to see him shaking his knee under the press conference table, pawing. He would like to return to her, to the closed park where she is resting: the others call her RB9, and fear her; to him she is Heidi, and he loves her. Or rather, Hungry Heidi, to be precise. Hungry Heidi. Because at the beginning of the season, with an admirable projection, he had wanted to unload on her, his main concern, that of being satiated. It happens after three consecutive triumphs. Now that the mission is accomplished, he wants to share with her, one by one, all the applause, all the compliments he is receiving, the comparisons, the big names - Ecclestone has put him alongside Muhammad Ali and Federer - he wants to thank her for being docile under his hands and fierce against his opponents. He wants to join her in laughing with her about the 25,000 euro fine they will receive from the FIA for celebrating in a dishevelled and dangerous manner. Actually, they looked great, on the track, Sebastian and Heidi as, almost hand in hand, they drew circles on the ground, playing tyre-smoke among the delirious Indian fans. It looked like a cartoon, a piece of Cars. It was real. But what do the stewards with their bellies know about what goes through the head of a 26-year-old boy at such a moment.
"Then I got out of the car and knelt down. Yes, really knelt down, in front of me I had the work of a team, the commitment and passion of men capable of burning whole hours, at night, on the engine, on a single piece. If you saw their salaries - better to work at McDonald's - you would better understand my gesture. It was in front of them that I knelt. And then, for goodness sake, also in front of my dreams as a kid that came true thanks to that car".
Actually, they didn't exactly come true.
"When I was a kid I didn't even think about something like that. Formula 1, all these champions, these people brimming with talent, Nico, Lewis, Fernando who started winning just when I was starting to watch F1 on TV, they were all so far away...".
Imagine how far away they were, Schumacher, Prost, and Fangio, whose records Vettel achieves today.
"Now I feel drained, and I don't understand what I did. I know that I won four world championships in a very short time, which is already a difficult thing to do in ten years, let alone five. But I don't know. Maybe when I'm in my sixties I'll do better, too bad no one will care about that then. What I do know, however, is that it hasn't been easy. No, gentlemen, it wasn't, not at all. On the contrary. It has been a hard year. I've had problems, I've had a lot of challenges, but I managed to overcome them, thanks to the team and thanks to a fantastic car".
Yeah, the protests. The whistles at Monza, the stupid ones in Singapore. They seemed to slide over him like water, to see him from the outside, in reality they left their mark. The excruciating doubt that in the end winning is not enough to be successful, to enter people's hearts as, after all, so many have done, even those less talented than him.
The impression that to do that you needed a talent of your own, a talent he did not have. But it was short-lived, fortunately, and that was also thanks to her, to Heidi, to her strength and grace. All he had to do was walk into the garage, look at her, and reassure himself. Let's win, she whispered to him in her language of pistons and petrol, then people will understand. And if they won't understand, amen. And, instead, she finally understood. Today the people understood.
"The other day a guy wrote to me, he was among those who had booed me in Singapore, he apologised. Well, what can I say, I was pleased".
And the champagne today is also a bit for him. As well as for Heidi. Bernie Ecclestone rejoices. After Michael Schumacher, his Formula 1 has finally found a new legend: his name is Sebastian Vettel, he has the face of an ordinary kid but a unique talent.
"Yes, today we can say that Sebastian is probably the best driver in the history of Formula 1".
Better than Schumacher and Senna?
"Well nobody knows how many world titles Senna could have won…".
But beyond titles?
"Yes, perhaps it is the best. And the counter-evidence is that people are starting to complain. They say that he always wins, that the show gets boring".
And is it true?
"Yes a little. But it's a good sign. It's part of sport, when a dominant personality emerges, it always happens like that. It was the same with Muhammad Ali and Federer".
So Alonso and Ferrari and the others must put their souls in peace. Is that what you are saying?
"But no. Sebastian and Red Bull's is a cycle. And like all cycles it is bound to end, sooner or later. It's the great challenge of those who find themselves practising during such a period. And I think the grid is full of talents and intelligences that are up to such a challenge. Starting with Alonso himself. After all, people, the same people who are bored, are just waiting to see when the champion will stop winning, and at whose hands. It's a bit like the Coliseum. And 2014 is the year to see it all, the rule change will significantly reduce the technical advantage accumulated by Red Bull with this rule set. As a fan, I wouldn't want to lose the next World Championship for anything in the world".
Ecclestone said this guy would become a champion long before he won his first World Championship, what made you so sure?
"Talent is something you cannot hide. I, for example, have always tried but never succeeded".
You call yourselves mutual friends. Is that an exaggeration?
"Absolutely not. We are the same age, so we understand each other perfectly…".
How did your relationship come about?
"When Sebastian took the superlicence in Istanbul I gave him one piece of advice, a very important one. Don't screw it up, I told him. And he followed it. Showing himself to be what he is, a very intelligent guy. Now he knows that whenever he has a problem, a doubt, he can come to me".
Is it true that you play backgammon?
"Yes, he knows he has to let me win. I said it: he's a smart guy".
What is the aspect you like most about Sebastian?
"I have always been convinced that when a driver wins the title, at that moment he becomes a kind of ambassador for Formula 1 and must have the appropriate attitudes. He has them. The others very often proved less suited to the role, always under the control of sponsors, remote-controlled. Not him. He is someone who thinks for himself, he is himself without having to ask the sponsor what he has to say. And this is also thanks to the skill of Mateschitz (the Red Bull boss, ed.) who allows him to do this".
And on the track?
"The fact that he has an iron will and an incredible determination".
Are you saying that others lack the will?
"The others don't have the same package that Sebastian has".
Are you referring to Red Bull Racing? Many people say that Vettel only wins because he has the best car.
"I do not think so. In fact, if anything, it's the opposite. Even if it is undeniable that the car plays a big role in F1".
The similarity game is going crazy in F1. Vettel has won four world championships like Prost. He is a phenomenon in qualifying like Senna. He is a serial winner like Schumacher...
"After his first world championship I gave him a metre, instead of centimetres it had the names of the world champions who had preceded him engraved on it. In case you missed anything, I told him".
In Bernie Ecclestone's opinion, which of those champions are you closest to?
"To me he reminds me a lot of Rindt. He is someone who always keeps his feet on the ground, regardless of the extent of the success he has just achieved. He has the same strength as Rindt. And just like him he hates to lose".
Three things. New people, new technology and new equipment. Stefano Domenicali counts them on his fingertips, like children, to show that he has clear ideas. In the back of the Ferrari motorhome, besieged by sinister swarms of Indian mosquitoes (the area is at high risk of dengue) the Ferrari team principal faces the most difficult press conference of the season. The one that counters Red Bull Racing's triumph, in short, the one of defeat. From afar come the echoes of Red Bull Racing's celebrations, and the questions are what they are, inevitably rough, uncomfortable. Excuse me, Domenicali, what makes you think that next year will be different from this year?
"I think I have a clear enough idea of what happened this year. But we are still in the race for second place in the constructors' championship, Mercedes has overtaken us by a handful of points but I think we have a good chance of doing it. So I don't feel like taking stock now. All I am saying is that we will focus on three things: new people, new technology and new facilities".
Good answer, but clearly insufficient. Last year, after the annual drubbing, Domenicali had responded in exactly the same way. And it ended as everyone knows. However, it is clear from the tone of voice and the tenor of the conversation that Domenicali knows this. He knows very well that the answer, after four consecutive years of defeats and an army of hired and fired technicians and resoundingly wrong strategic, political and human choices, is no longer sufficient; and that, in short, the process is only postponed. For the moment, therefore, we can only try to shed some light on what has not worked so far:
"I think we paid too much for two factors this year. The first is development: we have not been able to improve the car at the pace we set ourselves. The second is related to the tyres: we didn't react as we should have when we changed tyres in the race. Other teams did much better than us".
Far less inclined to self-criticism is Fernando Alonso. When questioned about his own responsibility in the light of the German's triumph, he too maintains that everything is fine:
"It is not the triumphs that say how much you are worth but the degree of satisfaction of the team that pays your salary. And all the teams I have raced for in my career have always shown satisfaction. Even Ferrari".
Granted that an even better means of measurement might be to ask the fans, certainly at Ferrari things, in general, are not going as expected before his appointment. Whose responsibility it is, exactly what the mistakes were, now is not the time to say. It will be discussed again later, perhaps after the question of second place - a result worth some fifteen million euros - is completely closed.
"We know how to come back and win".
The slogan, in the Ferrari house, is recited with conviction, the words articulated with force. We have new men, new equipment, new technology. And yet behind so much displayed conviction one clearly hears a concert of creaking and gnashing of teeth. Because, needless to deny it, what arrives in Abu Dhabi is a tired, confused and shocked Ferrari, as if suspended between the sadness of the present and the fear for a future that, beyond promises and slogans, is as uncertain as ever. And the words uttered on Sunday evening in the paddock at Greater Noida by team principal Stefano Domenicali, as Vettel uncorks his umpteenth bottle of champagne, do little to reassure. For one simple reason. They have been the same for four years now. New men? In 2010, after the season finale that everyone remembers, a certain Massimo Tammaro, former head of the Frecce Tricolori, was catapulted to Maranello. He was supposed to take care of the team's internal communication. After three years, there is no trace of Tammaro in the paddock.
And yet Alonso calmly calls the team's engineers and CEOs dumb, who instead understand geniuses. The following year, 2011, Pat Fry was hired - at Alonso's insistence - a heavyweight engineer from McLaren. He was supposed to bring to Maranello his ideas and the new technologies in use in England. Today, barely two years later, Pat Fry is one step away from being sacked, his role in the organisational chart compressed to the point of incomprehensibility to make way for another new man, James Allison, a Lotus technician who will bring with him not only his (new) technologies but also one of his own men, Dirk De Beer. The question is: why shouldn't De Beer and Allison end up like Tammaro and Fry and all the others? The exact same argument made for men and technology applies to the facilities, which, on closer inspection, depend very much on the men who use them and the technologies that are applied to them. The old wind tunnel was the jewel in Ferrari's crown. Montezemolo had it designed by Renzo Piano. Then suddenly it was discovered that it was no good, that it gave more or less random results. It had aged badly. It happens.
"For next year we have solved the problem: we will go to a new facility, abroad".
A system that obviously did not work by the admission of Ferrari's own aerodynamicists. Now they will go back to the previous one, but revamped. Will it work? At this point, of course, no one can say. Certainly no one can hope that it is enough to say we have new men, new equipment and new technology, to reassure an environment that is beginning to no longer believe in the possibility of returning to its former glory. At Ferrari they know this well. This time last year they were already talking about 2013 as the last chance for the protagonists of the made-in-Italy cycle, the one - of which there is, in truth, very little left - that took over the team after the Todt-Brawn-Schumacher era. Today, at the expiry of that promissory note, partly pretending nothing has happened and partly relying on the quiet life of Montezemolo and Fiat, the discourse is postponed for another year.
"With the new regulations Vettel's advantage will shrink".
But put like that, it sounds more like hope than analysis. And that is perhaps why, in the end, many, in the absence of a more in-depth analysis, place all hope in the hands of Rory Byrne: the now 70-year-old South African designer who designed many of the winning cars of the Schumacher era and who is working as supervisor on the 2014 project. So much for new men. And in the meantime, yet another negative race for Fernando Alonso, already conditioned in the early stages after contact with Webber caused damage to the front wing. In the end the Ferrari Spaniard finished eleventh, out of the points zone.
"How do we take second place in the Constructors' World Championship standings? We have to make podiums, if we get in front we take points away from the others. We have to do better starting in Abu Dhabi with both cars if possible. Vettel? We have to congratulate him and Red Bull, they did better, they were the best. Now we start from scratch for next year, Ferrari will fight. Vettel was very strong this year but we hope to make life difficult for him. We have no negative thoughts about next season. The fans should rest assured, we will be able to fight".
Stefano Domenicali immediately congratulated Christian Horner at the end of the race.
"They deserved to win this Grand Prix and this season, so it's only fair, now the goal is to try not to make Vettel bow on the straight anymore and win the World Championship? Sure, of course. These are things I've lived through for a long time and now, quite rightly, it's also time to take these scenes back. In any case, it's their day and so it's only fair to give the space to those who deserved to win".
There is no friction between Ferrari and Fernando Alonso. This was reaffirmed by Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali, annoyed by the constant rumours of a possible rift with the Spanish champion's Maranello team:
"I don't know if you want to see some shadow or something, but it's time to stop saying that there is something with Fernando. Honestly, that's how I see it, and I'm sure that applies to him too".
These rumours arose after Luca Montezemolo's criticism of some of Alonso's annoyed statements after the Hungarian Grand Prix and after rumours that the Spanish driver was to be approached by McLaren for 2015.
"We continue to have the same motivation to win together. That is our goal, without any doubt".