Question.

Winning the most number of races in a season makes Vettel the greatest ever?

Winning the most number of races in a season makes Vettel the greatest ever?

If you have Nissan manufacturing a luxury model that has your name, you are probably doing great in life!
Infiniti (owned by Nissan and a partner of Red Bull) has launched ‘Infiniti FX Sebastian Vettel’ after the racing driver. So how great is the German?
A look at this stats. 2007 and 2008 were his struggling days in F1 with BMW Sauber and Toro Rosso. In 2008, he did finish a commendable 8th in the Driver’s championships and won his first rase with Toro Rosso.
Considering his team, his performance was above par. This is what prompted Red Bull to recruit him. With Red Bull he has won 38 races of the 94 he has started in, a win rate of almost 40%. Considering the technical dominance that Red Bull has established in F1, this is expected. Consider Michael Schumacher in the 5 years with Ferrari, won 48 races of 85 he started in, a staggering 56% success rate over more races.
The strength of competition makes victories sweeter and champions bigger. Consider this – Schumacher competed with seasoned pros like Hakkinen driving a Mercedes (which was faster than Ferrari on some occasions) and Coulthard, an able team mate to Hakkinen. In 2000, 19 points separated Hakkinen and Schumacher. Then came Raikkonen in 2003 and Schumacher clinched the title with a gap of 2 points.Schumacher had won some fierce races, fended off some faster cars during his dominance over F1 from 2000-2004.
Bar 2010 and 2012, when Vettel clinched the title from Alonso at Abu Dhabi and Brazil respectively, the German has dominated the driver standings.His rival has been Alonso through his 4 years of dominance in a comparatively slower car.
It will not be unfair to say that Vettel is driving a far more technologically advanced than Schumacher.
Greatness also comes from how well you bounce back Schumacher had won 2 driver championships with Benetton before moving to Ferrari in 1996. For three years, he saw Damon Hill and Jacques Villenueve dominate F1 in the Williams and then came the era of Hakkinen and his McLaren Mercedes. Not until the season of 2000, was Schumacher able to rise above all and become the champion again.
Vettel is yet to see such rivalries or such lows in his career. If and when they do come, his greatness will be tested.
Vettel is 26 now and his start has been excellent with assistance from an excellent team, fast car and probably a mediocre playing field. Although the German has won more races than anyone else ever did this year, he has many more battles to win on the race track before he is called the greatest of all time.
There is still a long way to go for Vettel before the legendary Nurburgring names a couple of corners after him.

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