Albert Blog

Since Vettel announced that he will join Ferrari lots of comparison have been made between him and Schumacher. The similarities are quite a few:

• Both of them are Germans and World Champions
• Schumacher joined Ferrari while they were in a big crisis and Vettel joined them in a similar situation
• Ferrari restructured the team back in '96 and is doing the same now
• etc

Now that half of the season is past we can try and do a comparison between Schumacher '96 and Vettel '15. This isn't very straightforward because the cars are not the same, the competition is not the same, etc. but I will try to do an objective analysis.

First we'll try and compare the Ferrari of '96 against Williams '96 which was the class of the field and at the same time Ferrari '15 against Mercedes '15. To do this I will compare the results of the second driver in Ferrari in '96 and in '15, Irvine and Raikkonen.

Table 1, 1996 results

Table 2, 2015 results

In 1996 the average starting position of Irvine was 7.6, while in 2015 the average starting position of Raikkonen is 5.78. In the race Irvine has an average position of 5.2, while Raikkonen 4.71. The difference in both cases is small and taking into account that Raikkonen is a better driver (most people will agree) and World Champion, we can say that on pure performance Ferrari of '96 and of '15 compare similarly to the class of the field (but the Ferrari of '15 is much more reliable).

Now let's compare Schumacher and Vettel performance against the class of the field. Schumacher average starting position was 2.5 with an average difference from pole of 0.548, while Vettel's average starting position is 3.22 with an average difference from pole of 0.747. Additionally Schumacher had 3 pole positions, while Vettel has none. In defence of Vettel, probably the Mercedes of '15 is stronger on one lap pace that Williams of '96, but still it shows that Schumacher is one step ahead. If we compare the race results Schumacher has an average position of 2, while Vettel 3. On the other hand Vettel has 2 victories, while Schumacher only 1 (but he has 5 retirements to Vettel's none). Still the balance is slightly in favor of Schumacher.

Next comparison is between Schumacher '96 and Vettel '15 against their teammates. Schumacher pretty much has destroyed Irvine (qualifying 5.1 positions ahead with an average difference of 0.852), but also Vettel has outperformed clearly Raikkonen (qualifying 2.56 positions ahead with an average difference of 0.353). In both cases their teammates out-qualified them only once (excluding car troubles or rain). In the race Schumacher is 3.2 positions ahead of Irvine, while Vettel 1.71 ahead of Raikkonen.

Last comparison we'll do is the championship position of both after 10 races. In '96 Schumacher was third on 26 points (Hill had 63, Villeneuve 48), while in '15 Vettel is also third on 160 points (Hamilton has 202, Rosberg 181). Vettel is much closer and is still fighting for the championship, but this is mostly because Ferrari of '96 was much more unreliable.

As a conclusion, Schumacher of '96 was really exceptional and is very hard for anyone to compete against him. However the comparison clearly shows that Vettel is doing a great job against a better teammate and better opposition (most will agree that Hamilton/Rosberg are stronger that Hill/Villeneuve).

So well done to Vettel and keep pushing :)

Last week was one to remember for German fans and hopefully something that will be repeated again :) Here it's why:

• Thursday, May 23: Wolfsburg won the UEFA Women's Champions League beating Lyon 1-0 courtesy of a goal from Muller (yes, again it's another Muller). It was the 7^th Champions League win by a German team in 12 seasons (Frankfurt 3, Potsdam 2, Duisburg 1, Wolfsburg 1) since it started.
• Saturday, May 25: The first all German Champions League final took place in London. Bayern won 2-1 against Dortmund and returned the cup in Germany after 12 years. It was the 7^th cup for Germany (Bayern 5, Hamburg 1, Dortmund 1) in 15 finals contested by German teams. Bayern moved to 3rd place in the all time ranking after Real (9 cups) and Milan (7 cups).
• Sunday, May 26: Nico Rosberg won the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula 1 in a Mercedes-Benz car. It was the first win of the season for Rosberg and the first for Mercedes in Monaco since they returned to Formula 1 in 2010. Additionally Rosberg took Pole Position on Saturday, Vettel set the fastest lap of the race and Rosberg/Vettel completed the first 1-2 German podium since 2004 Japan Grand Prix (Michael and Ralf Schumacher).

 So congrats and long may it continue :)

Last Sunday Vettel won the Malaysian Grand Prix and is now leading the standings, but the news of the week is the fact that Vettel ignored team orders and overtook his team mate Webber for the win. If you read the news and/or forums you'll find lots of opinions ranging from slamming Vettel as the devil to hailing him as the best. As always the truth is somewhere in the middle.

My view on the controversy, is that Vettel clearly did a mistake in ignoring team orders. The team must take absolute priority or otherwise things will get ugly. However, there are several things we need to take into considerations:

1. Webber has done exactly the same thing in Silverstone 2011 and openly saying that he didn't want to obey to team orders (It's funny that lots of anti-Vettel people make up excuses that Silverstone was different and "bla bla bla" while the man himself did wrote a BBC column explaining his decision to attack Vettel).
2. Webber went too far in Brasil 2012, almost crashing Vettel, while Vettel was fighting for the title, while Webber for nothing. Obviously Vettel didn't forget it.
3. It's clear that Vettel is the better driver in Red Bull and based on the last years, those seven points may decide the title. It's such a big risk for Vettel to let it go.

So even though Vettel was in the wrong, the biggest problem goes to Red Bull/Horner. If Webber didn't obey the orders before, how can they expect Vettel to obey? Additionally they did put Vettel in a strategy that would give him the best tires at the end of the race. What is the point of that, if he cannot overtake Webber? And last, it's only the second race in the championship: Why have team orders?

Next question is what happens next? People are going as far as suggesting to ban Vettel from one race. I find it ridiculous :) Vettel is a triple World Champion and fighting for the fourth. I don't think Red Bull is that stupid to give away 25 points to the competition. Most probably there will be a penalty to Vettel, in the form of money/benefits, but that's all. While regarding the relationship with Webber they were never best friends and not much is going to change. Webber will fight again to have his buddy (Alonso) with the Championship, but Vettel will not need any help to get his fourth title :)

P.S Even though, Vettel was in the wrong, it showed one thing that I did like: he earned the "Baby Schumacher" nickname. Most people will not agree, but to win it all, you need that attitude :)

Hello again. I've tried and failed several times to regularly post on my blog. One of the reason is that it's difficult to find "free" time but after some reflection the main reason is that I hadn't decided on what to write and where to focus. As a software developer, this is a field that I'm interested, but aside from that there are several other fields that I'm interested and would like to share my thoughts. So mainly here you'll find:

• Software development posts, mostly related to software methodologies, but technical stuff also.
• Sport, mainly Formula 1 and football. I'm a "hardcore" fun of Nationalmannschaft and German clubs and also "hardcore" fun of Formula 1 currently rooting for Vettel :)
• Physics are also one of my interests and I try closely follow the latest development on fields such as Quantum Physics, String Theory, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, etc
• Social, political and philosophical topics are also on the agenda
• and last but not least occasionally I may post something about my family.

The target is to publish at least once per week and hopefully this time it will work out.

Happy reading :)

Albert