2022 is the last year of the Formula 1 career of Sebastian Vettel. The German Aston Martin driver greets the Circus with the status of one of the greatest ever, at least on a statistical level. Four world titles won, all at the wheel of Red Bull, and 53 races won in his career. In this second ranking only two sacred monsters like Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton have been able to do better. Yet in the overall evaluation of his sporting parable, made by many enthusiasts, Vettel has never received all the recognition that one could expect and that perhaps he would deserve. Many have ‘accused’ Seb of having won his titles with a means clearly superior to the competition. The other criticism that we often hear about the former Ferrari driver is that of never having been able to win starting further back than third position. An undertaking that, for example, champions such as Schumacher, Hamilton, Alonso, Prost and more recently Verstappen have accomplished, recovering to victory after starting at least from the tenth position, or worse.
But if we go back, looking in detail in the history of Formula 1, it turns out as well as several others legendary championswho have written memorable pages in the history of this sport and who are acclaimed far more than Vettel in the collective imagination, have pretty similar statistics to those of the # 5 of the Aston Martin house. Ayrton Senna, which many still regard as the best Formula 1 driver in history, has won 41 races in his career. Of these, however, only 12 not starting from pole position and just two starting out of the top-3. Moreover, on these two occasions the Brazilian had sprinted once fourth and another fifth. In terms of percentage, Senna won only 29.2% of his races not starting from the first place on the grid. With Vettel, that figure rises to 41.5%, slightly higher even than Lewis Hamilton’s (40.7%). Juan Manuel Fangiofive-time F1 world champion and symbol of the heroic times of the Circus, just as Vettel has never won any race in which he did not start in the top-3.
Always remaining at the Formula 1 of our grandparents, to share the ‘law of the first three positions’ there was also the mythical Alberto Ascari. Enzo Ferrari said of him, for example, that he was capable of winning only when he sprinted in front of everyone. Going up the F1 roll of honor, countless world champion drivers share this curious statistic with Vettel, which has often been used to give against the 35-year-old German. And speaking of who will probably be champion one day, what to say about Charles Leclerc. The strong Monegasque talent of Ferrari, in fact, out of five successes collected so far in his career has taken four from pole position and one from second position on the grid. Confirming that, paraphrasing what De Gregori sang, “it is not by these details that a pilot is judged“.
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