“To be fighting a four-time world champion who you respect, you expect nothing but the best from them,” he said. Hamilton, exuding a calmness that had so often deserted him in previous championship fights, credited Vettel as a formidable opponent. “This year Lewis probably made less mistakes, and in the end he was just the better man and he deserved to win.” “In the end you can break it down to a lot of details … but overall the package wasn’t good enough,” Vettel summed candidly.
Hamilton’s advantage ballooned to 59 points, and by Mexico in October he was crowned champion.
It was the season’s defining error, but the body blow became a technical knock-out when in Malaysia Vettel started from last with turbocharger troubles and in Japan his car was retired on lap four with spark plug problems. Hamilton cruised through the carnage to win, twisting the knife. Starting from pole in Singapore after Hamilton qualified fifth, Vettel’s overzealous defence of position at turn one became a devastating retirement from the race. After 13 rounds just three points separated the contenders.īut claiming motorsport’s greatest prize is as much about psychological strength as it is mechanical nous. Vettel built momentum early, claiming a 25-point lead after Monaco in May, but Mercedes, after instituting 10 days of round-the-clock engineering work, hit back. The former was stable, predictable and raceable the latter was capricious, peaky and, as Mercedes boss Toto Wolff described it, “a bit of a diva”. The Ferrari SF70H and the Mercedes W08 were closely matched machines. Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, the best of their generation, would go toe to toe for the title. These rule changes may not have slowed Mercedes, but Ferrari seized its opportunity to mount an unlikely title bid and deliver the sport its long-awaited blockbuster showdown.
Loaded up with corner-eating downforce, these machines, amongst the fastest ever built, dared their drivers to dance on the edge of grip.
This year will be remembered for Formula One’s return to its roots, reviving the pre-1998 wider cars evocative of an age of rawer racing. After 20 races the 2017 season looked much like the three before it: Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton were crowned champions with considerable margins.īut the points tallies tell only half the story.Īn alternative reading is of 2017 as a year of renewed optimism – a year of the fastest cars for generations, of a psychological battle between the sport’s top two drivers and of hope that new golden era could be dawning.