[[ Club de Sebastian Vettel ]]
[[ Club de Sebastian Vettel ]]
Kimi and Vettel: Bosom buddies
![Re: [[ Club de Sebastian Vettel ]]](https://noxstatic.com/img/f1aldia/none.jpg)
If you seek for the two most different people on the grid there is a good chance you´ll end up with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen. On one side there´s the bubbly German, who gleefully performs a not entirely convincing Fred Feuerstein or Crazy Frog impression over the team radio and had to run away from some of Michael Schumacher´s beer bashes after their numerous victories in the Race Of Champion´s nation cup.
On the other side you have the not exactly chatty Finn, who would never pass up the chance to empty a bottle of Vodka and has to be paid extra to speak more than two sentences or empties his bowels while a seven times world champion is presented a life-time achievement award by Brazilian legend Pelé and has no qualms to announce that in poetic words on live TV
Strangely enough both have confirmed in several interviews over the time that they are good buddies. This came to widespread attention at the height of the silly season, when Alonso, Räikkönen and the two Toro Rosso drivers were in the running for the coveted second seat at Red Bull.
Especially in German language interviews Vettel didn´t tire to reiterate that his preferred team mate would be Kimi and that he definitely preferred him over Alonso.
While many observers rubbished the idea as just mere smokescreen, both Auto Motor und Sport and Motorsport Total reported after the signing of Daniel Ricciardo that it was Dr. Marko who had vetoed Kimi´s transfer to Red Bull, overriding Vettel´s preference in favour of an alumnus from his Red Bull young drivers program.
Confirmation that the unlikely friendship is more than a spiel put up for the media came in two guises before and after the Japan Grand Prix. Showing their rivals Alonso and Webber how to give someone a ride after the race without incurring a reprimand, Räikkönen offered Vettel a seat on his private jet and they traveled back to Europe together.
Another confirmation came from Nico Hülkenberg. After his stunning drive in the Korean Grand Prix, German Broadcaster RTL produced a lengthy pre-race feature during which the world´s worst dressed man, RTL reporter Kai Ebel, interviewed the Hulk in a Japanese sushi bar. Asked how he gets along with the other German drivers, Nico confirmed that he gets along quite well with the other Nico (Rosberg) and especially Adrian Sutil. He ominously left out Vettel.
"Erm, there is that chap called Sebastian Vettel, too," Ebel probed.
"Yeah well, we dont really meet a lot,´" Hulk answered. "He hangs out with Kimi all the time anyway, but we respect each other of course."
It looks as if Dr. Marko deprived us of a really interesting and potentially hilarious scenario - two world champions in the same team, who don´t hate each other. With the two polar opposites Vettel and Kimi in the mix Red Bull could well have returned to the `cool days when´ they collected their trophies wearing a Superman cape or jumped into the pool at Monaco naked.
If you seek for the two most different people on the grid there is a good chance you´ll end up with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen. On one side there´s the bubbly German, who gleefully performs a not entirely convincing Fred Feuerstein or Crazy Frog impression over the team radio and had to run away from some of Michael Schumacher´s beer bashes after their numerous victories in the Race Of Champion´s nation cup.
On the other side you have the not exactly chatty Finn, who would never pass up the chance to empty a bottle of Vodka and has to be paid extra to speak more than two sentences or empties his bowels while a seven times world champion is presented a life-time achievement award by Brazilian legend Pelé and has no qualms to announce that in poetic words on live TV
Strangely enough both have confirmed in several interviews over the time that they are good buddies. This came to widespread attention at the height of the silly season, when Alonso, Räikkönen and the two Toro Rosso drivers were in the running for the coveted second seat at Red Bull.
Especially in German language interviews Vettel didn´t tire to reiterate that his preferred team mate would be Kimi and that he definitely preferred him over Alonso.
While many observers rubbished the idea as just mere smokescreen, both Auto Motor und Sport and Motorsport Total reported after the signing of Daniel Ricciardo that it was Dr. Marko who had vetoed Kimi´s transfer to Red Bull, overriding Vettel´s preference in favour of an alumnus from his Red Bull young drivers program.
Confirmation that the unlikely friendship is more than a spiel put up for the media came in two guises before and after the Japan Grand Prix. Showing their rivals Alonso and Webber how to give someone a ride after the race without incurring a reprimand, Räikkönen offered Vettel a seat on his private jet and they traveled back to Europe together.
Another confirmation came from Nico Hülkenberg. After his stunning drive in the Korean Grand Prix, German Broadcaster RTL produced a lengthy pre-race feature during which the world´s worst dressed man, RTL reporter Kai Ebel, interviewed the Hulk in a Japanese sushi bar. Asked how he gets along with the other German drivers, Nico confirmed that he gets along quite well with the other Nico (Rosberg) and especially Adrian Sutil. He ominously left out Vettel.
"Erm, there is that chap called Sebastian Vettel, too," Ebel probed.
"Yeah well, we dont really meet a lot,´" Hulk answered. "He hangs out with Kimi all the time anyway, but we respect each other of course."
It looks as if Dr. Marko deprived us of a really interesting and potentially hilarious scenario - two world champions in the same team, who don´t hate each other. With the two polar opposites Vettel and Kimi in the mix Red Bull could well have returned to the `cool days when´ they collected their trophies wearing a Superman cape or jumped into the pool at Monaco naked.
![Re: [[ Club de Sebastian Vettel ]]](https://noxstatic.com/img/f1aldia/120000/120552_1.jpg)
- Martin Brundle, on how good Sebastian Vettel really is
"I happen to think that Mark Webber is pretty handy, but he's usually been around 30 percent down on the points that Sebastian has scored each year.
"Seb gets the quali lap in, he gets the start nailed and he builds the gap, and he's brilliant at managing the tires.
"The more I talk to the other drivers, the more I realize how hard that is.
"But he doesn't lock the fronts, he doesn't spin the rears, he manages all these things, and you can't fail to be impressed by that.
"I used to rave about such things with Michael and Fernando, and now about Seb.
"And people say he hasn't won in another type of car, but he won from pole at Monza in 2008 in a Toro Rosso when that wasn't a winning car, so as far as I'm concerned, he's checked that box.
"With all of the great drivers, most of the work is done outside the car so that the work that needs to be done inside it is easier. That's part of the skill, collecting and motivating the right people around you.
"The great drivers attract the great designers and engineers because it's inevitable that they'll want to work with them. That's not something to boo people for.
"Vettel is turning into the complete driver. And if you had him and Alonso in a Red Bull, I honestly don't know who would win."
"I happen to think that Mark Webber is pretty handy, but he's usually been around 30 percent down on the points that Sebastian has scored each year.
"Seb gets the quali lap in, he gets the start nailed and he builds the gap, and he's brilliant at managing the tires.
"The more I talk to the other drivers, the more I realize how hard that is.
"But he doesn't lock the fronts, he doesn't spin the rears, he manages all these things, and you can't fail to be impressed by that.
"I used to rave about such things with Michael and Fernando, and now about Seb.
"And people say he hasn't won in another type of car, but he won from pole at Monza in 2008 in a Toro Rosso when that wasn't a winning car, so as far as I'm concerned, he's checked that box.
"With all of the great drivers, most of the work is done outside the car so that the work that needs to be done inside it is easier. That's part of the skill, collecting and motivating the right people around you.
"The great drivers attract the great designers and engineers because it's inevitable that they'll want to work with them. That's not something to boo people for.
"Vettel is turning into the complete driver. And if you had him and Alonso in a Red Bull, I honestly don't know who would win."