Red Bull boss thinks world champion has nothing left to prove
Last Updated: September 23, 2011 6:27pm
Vettel: Has shaken off reputation for crashing
Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner thinks Sebastian Vettel's dominant performances this year have silenced any doubters the world champion had left.
Although the German became the youngest ever Formula One world champion last year, he still attracted his fair share of criticism along the way.
Some felt that his temperament was questionable and a number of on-track incidents led to McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh describing him as "the crash kid".
But this season he has enjoyed a near-perfect year in which he has won eight of 13 races and been on pole 10 times, leaving him with a chance to secure back-to-back titles in Sunday's race in Singapore.
"Mathematically Sebastian is in great shape in the championship, but nothing is done, and we take absolutely nothing for granted," Horner said.
"We're just focused on extracting the best out of the cars and out of the weekend. But he has been the stand-out driver, with a phenomenal run of results, and one that as a team, and Seb himself, are keen to build on in the remaining six events.
Learning curve
"For me, he has completely proved all his detractors wrong. He's continued to evolve and to grow. Last year he had a lot of bad luck at different stages, but he learned a lot.
"From that he has grown, in particular as an individual with experience, with his confidence high and he has complete belief in the team around him.
"He is also delivering at a phenomenally high level, and the consistency with which he does that is quite remarkable."
Even with Vettel on the brink of securing the drivers' title, there will be no let-up in Singapore as the 24-year-old aims for a third consecutive victory since the summer break.
Horner added: "For us we're going about this race like any other. We'll attack the weekend. You've seen the last two races. We haven't gone into a cruise-and-collect mode.
"We've attacked the two grands prix that historically have been very tough for us. Monza was a phenomenal result for the whole team, and it would be great to repeat that here."
Records
Vettel has the opportunity to equal or better two longstanding F1 records for number of poles in a season (14 by Nigel Mansell in 1992) and race wins (13 by Michael Schumacher in 2004).
"He enjoys the statistics," Horner said.
"It actually drives me nuts, he goes for the fastest lap at the end of the race, but he uses that as a stimulus in many respects.
"But he enjoys and appreciates the history of the sport, but he is not obsessed by it. The most important thing is to deal with 2011 first and to win the championships, and the rest of the other stuff will take care of itself.
"Our focus is on getting the job done. We've healthy leads in both championships, but nothing is finalised until it's there on paper, so it's a case of one weekend at a time."
Credit: Sky Sports (www.skysports.com)
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