Vettel needs to learn

Once upon a time many people in Formula One were in awe of Sebastian Vettel.

The German made his debut at the age of 19 at Sauber, as part of the Red Bull young drivers programme.

He would eventually move on to Toro Rosso where he amazingly won his first race at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.

Vettel moved to Red Bull Racing in 2009, finishing second in the championship behind Jenson Button.

But in 2010, Red Bull’s domination began as Vettel won four consecutive Formula One titles.

During that period Vettel set a number of Formula One records which he still holds today, including becoming the youngest Formula One champion in history at 23 years, 135 days.

His 2011 title was so dominant that he set the record for most podium finishes in a season [17], most pole positions in a season [15], most wins from pole position in a season [9] and most laps led in a season [739].

In 2013 he added the records for most wins in a season [13], most consecutive victories [9] and most points [397].

But since his dominance ended, his fall from grace has been swift.

In 2014 he was comprehensively beaten by new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo which resulted in Vettel leaving the team for Ferrari.

In 2015 he won three races to finish as best of the rest behind Mercedes, but in 2016 he’s had a number of run ins with other drivers which has resulted in letting Red Bull leapfrog Ferrari.

At the start of the season his run-ins were with then Red Bull Racing driver Daniil Kvyat, he’s later had skirmishes with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard was particularly put off by Vettel’s aggressive stance during the Brazilian Grand Prix and the double world champion will not be letting the incident be forgotten.

‘There was an asphalt run-off and I used it and nothing happened, But if there’s a wall there, I either drive into the wall or into him, which is what I will probably do next time. Alonso told motorsport.com.

‘I’ll crash into him and he will lose more points than me.’

‘It’s okay. You just use the asphalt run-off and that’s it. But one day we’ll have to drive into him so he realises that the track belongs to everybody.’