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LEADING Formula One figures in the kingdom have called on motor racing fans to stop insulting the champion and start celebrating his achievements.
Sebastian Vettel is looking for his sixth win in a row, 10th of the season and 36th of his career in India on Sunday.
The German leads Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso by 90 points with four races remaining and should secure his fourth successive title.
There is debate in the sport, heavily reliant of the number of TV viewers it attracts, that Vettel’s current track dominance is boring the pants off fans.
CEO of the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa said: “People are asking if it’s good or bad that Vettel keeps winning. The entertainment aspect is one way to look at it as once spectators see he’s turned the first corner they go ‘oh, he’s going to win it again’. But it’s not like it’s a walk in the park for him. It’s the strategy and tyres you have to take into consideration – everything is unpredictable. Let’s not take away from his victories.
“It’s been a fantastic season for Vettel, I also think it’s a great effort from the entire Red Bull team not just him.
“I have a lot of respect for him. I know him personally and he is a lovely guy. I saw him in Brazil after he won the third championship and he was very happy. To continue to have success you must have a hunger to succeed and that is something I think he still has, regardless of whether people ask if he is good for the sport, or not.
“I don’t think that will make him less hungry to win races. I think that is what fuels him more than anything – he wants to be the best.”
To make matters worse, the German has been booed at various races since an incident at the Malaysian Grand Prix when, having been told to hold station behind his teammate Mark Webber, he mounted an attack and overtook him for the win.
That initial outburst and one that followed in Canada have been attributed to unsportsmanlike behaviour. However, subsequent heckling, at both Monza and Singapore, has also been seen as a reaction to Vettel’s dominance of the sport.
In Singapore last month, the 26-year-old German was a lap quicker than his rivals.
Such a dominant display prompted Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton to suggest after the recent Korean Grand Prix that Vettel’s success was sending some fans in Europe, who got up early to watch the Asian races, back to bed because they already knew who was going to win.
Shaikh Salman’s predecessor at the BIC, Martin Whittaker, now running a sports and business consultancy operation in the kingdom, remains close to many of the movers and shakers in the sport and reckons it has been a ‘pretty impressive season’ so far.
“It’s marked by three things in my opinion,” he said. “One, the performance of the Infiniti Red Bull car during the last five races, two, Vettel’s sheer driving discipline behind the wheel and, thirdly, the slightly unfortunate situation with Mark Webber. He didn’t need to do that to Webber. Those are the stand out points for me this season.
“It’s not so much Vettel and Red Bull, it’s about the rest of the teams playing catch up. There is no doubt about it, a lot of people are beginning to turn off but we can’t blame that on Vettel and the team.
“I like Vettel, I think he has been a breath of fresh air over the last few seasons and he is an inspiration to young drivers.
“He is a very special guy. He is a young lad who got to where he is by having a prodigious talent.”
When Vettel addressed the issue after Singapore, he said: “Some people like what we do, some people don’t. If they boo, it’s a compliment – that’s the way I take it, they are jealous because I win. As long as they keep booing we’re doing a very good job, that’s the way I see it.”
Red Bull principal Christian Horner recently painted a different picture. “He’s a human being, he’s 26 years of age and is travelling around the world on his own. He doesn’t have a big entourage of managers and press advisers and gurus, it’s him and his trainer and he’s a young guy.
“When you get a negative reaction when you have driven your heart out, no matter what he says, of course you feel it. I think it has been hugely unfair, because I don’t think it has been justified.
“Our target is to try to carry this momentum into the last four races. I don’t think any of us could have imagined that he would have had the run of success that he has. The way he’s driving at the moment is quite supreme.”
The sport has seen it all before, when another German was behind the wheel and won seven championships.
However, many sports analysts believe he will crush Michael Schumacher’s record … the big question is, will all the fans stay on-board to witness it?
