FORMULA ONE:SEBASTIAN VETTEL will come to the floodlit Marina Bay street circuit tomorrow hoping for a coronation. But if he wins his second title in two years, to become the youngest of double champions at 24, the panoply and fanfares will be strangely muted.
The Formula One season would face five more races, blanketed in anticlimax, a silencer fitted to its raspy raucousness. There are still more than two months to go before the curtain comes down in Brazil on November 27th. He is far from guaranteed to clinch the title but a top-three finish could mean he is crowned, depending on other results.
This would be one of sport’s most premature of celebrations. There were six races remaining when Michael Schumacher won in 2002. There were five races to go when Nigel Mansell won in 1992. But not even the most anhedonic of race fan is objecting to all of this.
Vettel’s brilliance may have robbed his sport of a fitting acme; his triumph, when it comes, will have a sort of death-and-taxes inevitability about it. However, this downbeat denouement cannot disguise the fact that this has been an exceptional season.
Ross Brawn, the technical director of the championship-winning Benetton and Ferrari teams and one of the wisest of paddock people, thinks it has been a memorable year.
Brawn, who now leads Mercedes, says: “It’s been a fantastic season. Okay, it would have been nice to see the championship battle go down to the wire, but in the absence of that all the racing that’s been going on, both at the front and through the field, has been first-class.
“That viewing figures are up in a lot of countries confirms the point that it has been a compelling season and demonstrates the sport’s appeal. We haven’t had any processional races.”
Down at the other end of the paddock, Virgin’s team principal John Booth is equally enthusiastic. “It’s been the most exciting season I can remember,” he says. “That Vettel is going to win it easily doesn’t detract from an exciting year.
“There’s been lots more overtaking. The Pirelli tyres have made a big difference, requiring more thought and strategy, which has led to more swapping of positions, and we have had some water on the circuits too, which always helps.”
The racing was also exceptional last season but because of some unforced errors from Red Bull and some poor judgments from a less experienced Vettel, the chase for the title went to the last race.
Booth adds: “There has been a genuine effort from the technical committee over the past two seasons to increase overtaking. There’s been more position changes through tyre strategy than through DRS, not just pure overtaking but the careful planning of pit stops, that sort of thing.”
Brawn points to the previous race, the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, as an example of the spectacle we have had this year.
“Schumacher’s battle with Lewis Hamilton divided opinion but it was great entertainment, great racing. Seeing two guys right on the edge like that was a treat and we’ve had lots of races like that.”
Some people, though, are never satisfied. The former world champion Jacques Villeneuve said this week: “Races are a borefest. I’m not a fan of the new rules, artificial rear wings and all that sort of stuff.
“It makes me yawn and fall asleep. I don’t see any great driving any more.”
Drivers Championship
1 S Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 284pts
2 F Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 172pts
3 J Button (Brit) McLaren 167pts
4 M Webber (Aus) Red Bull 167pts
5 L Hamilton (Brit) McLaren 158pts
Constructors Championship
1Red Bull-Renault 451pts
2McLaren-Mercedes 325pts
3Ferrari 254pts
4Mercedes 108pts
5Renault 70pts
No of laps: 61.
Lap length: 3.15 miles.
Race distance: 192.2 miles.
Fastest lap: 1m 45.599s.
(K Raikkonen, Ferrari, 2008).
2010 pole position: F Alonso (Ferrari).
2010 winner: F Alonso (Ferrari).
Weather forecast: 28 degrees.
