F1

Did Vettel deliberately score too few points to activate his exit clause?

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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  • #288346
    William
    Participant

    With Alonso almost committed to leaving Ferrari by mid season….did Vettel see an opportunity to leave Red Bull and go to Ferrari Wonderland by dragging his ass a bit and not getting sufficient points to complete his contract

    #288347
    William
    Participant

    Vettel is a smart guy…he also negotiates his own contracts so he would be intimately aware of his exit options.

    #288355
    Force Maikel
    Participant

    I higly doubt it, Vettel is a competitive guy, no way he deliberatly underperformed so he could get out of his Red Bull contract.

    ……and he didn’t see an opportunity, he was asked by Mattiacci in september when Fernando asked Ferrari if he could leave. Vettel in return ambushed Red Bull.

    It was merely a coincidence, nothing more. I also higly doubt a team absolutly wants to retain a driver that doesn’t want to drive for them. They would have allowed him to leave either way albeit after Ferrari/Vettel had payed them a compensation.

    #288362
    Bradley Downton
    Participant

    @spyder999 – I doubt that, simply because – as far as I’m aware – the escape clause goes on how the team performs overall, not the driver and his points.

    #288367
    Craig Woollard
    Participant

    The thing is, his escape clause could have been absolutely anything. As @Bradley13 says, it seems as it was based on how the team performance is, which may range from a set number of podiums to a championship position to not achieving any pole positions or not enough race victories.

    Vettel was paid by Red Bull to do a job. I am certain that he did the job as well as he could have done. He didn’t do an amazing job on paper, but it wasn’t as if he was the worst driver on the grid this year.

    #288369
    minnis
    Participant

    No, of course not. That would imply he was purposely bad from the start of the season, as there was no race from which his performance dropped off. No reigning champion would deliberately give up on the championship before it even begins.

    A more likely answer is that Vettel, having gone from an RB9 with lots of down force to a RB10 with much less downforce, he has had to adopt a whole new style to compensate for the lack of down force. Undoubtedly, he will not have much confidence in the car. Yet Ricciardo has gone from a low diwnforce torro rosso to the RB10. The STR8 will have much less down force than the RB9 even allowing for the 2014 down force cuts, so Ricciardo is still going to a car with more grip. Thus he will have far more confidence than Vettel.

    Not trying to put a downer on Ricciardos performance, but I think that the car just didn’t suit Vettel. If they were competing in an RB9 I’m sure Vettel would have had the upper hand.

    #288412
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Did Vettel deliberately score too few points to activate his exit clause?

    No.

    #288415
    Kingshark
    Participant

    Did Vettel need to be outside of the top 3 in the championship standings to be able to exit Red Bull?

    If so, he must have known as far ago as Bahrain/China that DR needed to out-perform him in order for him to exit Red Bull (at the time, Alonso was still tied to Ferrari). I don’t think Vettel has that kind of foresight.

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