Special contributor：Edd Straw

文獻(xiàn)：艾德·斯圖瓦

塞巴斯蒂安·維特爾是如何被記住的——他到底有多優(yōu)異？

How should Sebastian Vettel be remembered – and how good was he really?

Statistics don’t measure greatness, but Sebastian Vettel’s four world championships, 53 victories and 57 pole positions automatically qualify him for that status. The only question is one of magnitude, of?how?great he is. We can now attempt to answer following his Formula 1 retirement.

Vettel’s career trajectory is curious. A meteoric rise through the junior ranks, almost-immediate success with an unheralded Toro Rosso team then, before the age of 27, he’d produced the vast majority of his F1 success with Red Bull.

When Vettel triggered his release clause to join Ferrari for 2015 after a winless campaign as Red Bull floundered at the start of the V6 turbo hybrid era, success seemed written in the stars. Just as his mentor Michael Schumacher’s early success with Benetton was simply a prelude to his glory days with Ferrari, Vettel’s Red Bull stint might merely have been the preamble to something amazing.

But his six years at Maranello disappointed, followed by a cathartic but, in terms of results, unsuccessful two years with Aston Martin. To measure Vettel’s greatness, first one must weigh up the two parts of this unbalanced career.

統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)字不能衡量偉大，但塞巴斯蒂安·維特爾的四次世界錦標(biāo)賽、53次勝利和57個(gè)桿位使他獲得了這一地位。唯一的問題是他有多偉大，這是一個(gè)重要的問題。我們現(xiàn)在可以嘗試在他一級方程式賽車退役后回答這個(gè)問題。

維特爾的職業(yè)軌跡令人好奇。他在初級隊(duì)伍中迅速崛起，在一支默默無聞的紅牛二隊(duì)中幾乎立即取得了成功，然后在27歲之前，他在紅牛車隊(duì)取得了F1的絕大部分成功。

當(dāng)維特爾在V6渦輪混合動力時(shí)代開始時(shí)，紅牛陷入困境，經(jīng)歷了一場失敗的賽季之后，他在2015年加入法拉利車隊(duì)時(shí)，成功似乎寫在了星輝上。正如他的導(dǎo)師邁克爾·舒馬赫在貝納通的早期成功只是他在法拉利（Ferrari）輝煌歲月的前奏一樣，維特爾（Vetel）在紅牛車隊(duì)（Red Bull）的表現(xiàn)可能只是一件令人驚嘆的事的前奏。

但他在馬拉內(nèi)羅的六年讓人失望，隨后是一場離別，但就結(jié)果而言，他在阿斯頓·馬丁的兩年不成功。要衡量維特爾的偉大，首先必須權(quán)衡這個(gè)不平衡職業(yè)生涯的兩個(gè)部分。

Early Vettel (2007-2013) was a phenomenon. Speak to those who worked with him as he ascended from karting hopeful to superstar and the message is consistent. Yes, he was fast, but there are many quick drivers. What marked Vettel out was his attention to detail, his dedication, the determination to leave no stone unturned. Schumacher was the prototypical modern, all-round driver, and Vettel followed his lead to the letter.

“Many drivers have the skills, the talent,” says Franz Tost, Vettel’s team boss at Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2007-8. “In the past, there were a couple of drivers from the speed,?only?from the speed, that could have won the championship.

“But they were either stupid or something else. They couldn’t get it together because they didn’t understand the ingredients you must bring together to become a successful driver.”

早期的維特爾（2007-2013）有一種現(xiàn)象。當(dāng)他從卡丁車有望晉升為超級明星時(shí)，與那些與他共事的人交談，傳達(dá)的信息是一致的。是的，他跑得很快，但有很多速度很快的司機(jī)。維特爾與眾不同的是他對細(xì)節(jié)的關(guān)注，他的奉獻(xiàn)精神，以及不遺余力的決心。舒馬赫是典型的現(xiàn)代全能車手，維特爾緊隨其后。

“很多車手都有技術(shù)和天賦，”維特爾車隊(duì)老板弗朗茨·托斯特在2007-2008賽季的紅牛二隊(duì)說道。

“但他們要么是愚蠢的，要么是別的什么。他們無法把它們結(jié)合起來，因?yàn)樗麄儾涣私獬蔀橐幻晒囀炙仨毦邆涞囊??！?/p>

Tost is characteristically brutal, but accurate. Many drivers take years to embrace this reality, some never do, but Vettel was already there even before he got to F1. Speak to Frederic Vasseur,?now Ferrari Team Principal?but then running the ASM Formula 3 squad that Vettel raced for in 2006, and he says a similar thing. Vettel had a voracious appetite for self-improvement.

That’s something reflected in his approach once he was the finished article in F1. During the Toro Rosso years, he built great understanding of his driving, deconstructing it and grasping what he needed to be quick. A strong front end, a stable rear that he rotated with confidence on corner entry, and Vettel was dynamite. He carried that into his Red Bull years.

投擲的特點(diǎn)是野蠻，但準(zhǔn)確。許多車手需要數(shù)年的時(shí)間來接受這一現(xiàn)實(shí)，有些人從未這樣做過，但維特爾甚至在進(jìn)入F1之前就已經(jīng)在那里了。請與弗雷德里克·瓦瑟交談，他現(xiàn)在是法拉利車隊(duì)的負(fù)責(zé)人，但當(dāng)時(shí)是維特爾在2006年競選的ASM三級方程式車隊(duì)的隊(duì)長，他說了類似的話。維特爾渴望自我提升。

這一點(diǎn)反映在他在F1完成文章后的方法中。在紅牛二隊(duì)的歲月里，他對自己的駕駛有了深刻的理解，對其進(jìn)行了解構(gòu)，并掌握了快速駕駛所需的東西。一個(gè)強(qiáng)大的前端，一個(gè)穩(wěn)定的后方，他在進(jìn)入角球時(shí)充滿信心地旋轉(zhuǎn)，維特爾是個(gè)炸藥。他把這一點(diǎn)帶到了他的紅牛時(shí)代。

There, like all great drivers, he made superb machinery better. Exhaust-blown aero existed in various forms across Vettel’s four title-winning years in 2010-13, but it was his diligence and excellence in adapting his technique that made the most of it.

The throttle wasn’t only a means to deliver power to the wheels, but also as a gasflow pump to create aeroload. At times, that required the adoption of a counter-intuitive technique, one that gave the car more downforce and, crucially, delivered it in a way and at a time Vettel required to give him the rear end he needed. There were echoes of Ayrton Senna’s legendary throttle-pumping technique in what Vettel did – it was that good.

This was peak Vettel, racking up seemingly endless pole positions and dominant wins. While usually these were the lead-from-the-front triumphs demanded by a car that generally carried more downforce and therefore drag than rivals, there were also wins from behind, notably passing Fernando on the grass?at Monza to win in 2011?and recovering to sixth?to clinch the title at Interlagos in ’12 after clashing with Bruno Senna?on the opening lap.

Vettel was no one-trick pony. The Vettel during this period was genuinely outstanding, comparable with the best four-year spells of the legends.

在那里，和所有偉大的車手一樣，他把高超的機(jī)械開得更好。2010年至2013年，維特爾的四年奪冠生涯中都存在著各種形式的排氣氣流，但正是他在調(diào)整技術(shù)方面的勤奮和卓越成就了這一成就。

節(jié)氣門不僅是向車輪提供動力的一種手段，也是一種產(chǎn)生空氣負(fù)荷的氣流泵。有時(shí)，這需要采用一種反直覺的技術(shù)，一種給汽車更大下壓力的技術(shù)，關(guān)鍵的是，以某種方式傳遞它，而維特爾則需要給他所需的后端。在維特爾所做的事情中，有艾爾頓·塞納傳奇式的油門抽油技術(shù)的回聲——這很好。

這是維特爾的巔峰時(shí)刻，取得了看似無止境的桿位和統(tǒng)治性的勝利。雖然通常情況下，這是一輛通常比對手承受更大下壓力，因此阻力更大的賽車所要求的正面勝利的領(lǐng)先優(yōu)勢，但也有來自后面的勝利，特別是在2011年蒙扎的草地上超越費(fèi)爾南多贏得勝利，并在12年的因特拉戈斯與布魯諾·塞納在首圈發(fā)生沖突后恢復(fù)到第六位，奪得冠軍。

維特爾并不是一匹會?；ㄕ械男●R。在這段時(shí)間里，維特爾真的非常出色，可以和傳奇中最好的四年時(shí)間相提并論。

But there were moments during this era that hinted at the frailties to come. There were mistakes, particularly in 2010, and the?controversies with team mate Mark Webber, that foreshadowed what was to come in his Ferrari years.

After being outperformed by new team mate Daniel Ricciardo in 2014 – a season during which Vettel performed better than most remember and suffered more than his fair share of car problems, but which was nonetheless below par – there came the move to Ferrari.

It started wonderfully, with a first victory second time out in Malaysia and three victories in a year of recovery for Ferrari. But the inherent instability of Ferrari had already been exposed by the fact Luca di Montezemolo, who had been instrumental in the German’s recruitment, left before Vettel even arrived.

The peak of Vettel’s Ferrari years were 2017 and ’18. In the first of those years, he was neck-and-neck with Lewis Hamilton heading into the final seven races of the season. But?at the start of the Singapore Grand Prix, he triggered an accident that eliminated both Ferraris and Max Verstappen. Ferrari’s reliability problems likely would have made it difficult to close out that title push, but the Singapore result shattered Vettel’s momentum.

但在這個(gè)時(shí)代，有一些時(shí)刻暗示了未來的脆弱。有一些失誤，特別是在2010年，以及與隊(duì)友馬克·韋伯的爭議，預(yù)示著他在法拉利時(shí)代的未來。

在2014年被新隊(duì)友丹尼爾·里卡多擊敗之后——在這個(gè)賽季里，維特爾的表現(xiàn)比大多數(shù)人記憶中的都要好，遭遇了比他應(yīng)得的更多的汽車問題，但這仍然低于標(biāo)準(zhǔn)——于是他轉(zhuǎn)會到了法拉利車隊(duì)。

比賽開始得很精彩，在馬來西亞第二次取得了第一場勝利，法拉利在一年的恢復(fù)期內(nèi)取得了三場勝利。但法拉利內(nèi)在的不穩(wěn)定性已經(jīng)暴露出來，事實(shí)上，在德國人招募過程中發(fā)揮了重要作用的盧卡·迪·蒙特澤莫羅在維特爾到來之前就離開了。

維特爾在法拉利的巔峰時(shí)期是2017年和18年。在這兩年的頭幾年，他與劉易斯·漢密爾頓在本賽季的最后七場比賽中并駕齊驅(qū)。但在新加坡大獎(jiǎng)賽開始時(shí)，他引發(fā)了一場事故，淘汰了法拉利和馬克斯·維斯塔潘。法拉利的可靠性問題很可能會使冠軍爭奪戰(zhàn)難以結(jié)束，但新加坡的結(jié)果粉碎了維特爾的勢頭。

However, losing his cool and deliberately?sideswiping Hamilton under the Safety Car at Baku?was the more revealing incident. It was an extraordinary moment of aggression, one that couldn’t be excused by his annoyance at what he saw as Hamilton’s shenanigans building up to the restart, and something entirely out of kilter with Vettel’s affable, easy-going character. Even Vettel seemed to struggle to come to terms with his own inexcusable actions.

In 2018, the Ferrari was a stronger all-round car but Vettel made too many mistakes. Sliding off while leading?in tricky conditions at Hockenheim?is regarded as the moment the season went wrong for Vettel – and it was a blow – but the error rate in races was too high beyond that.

And those errors were telling. At Red Bull, they happened but not with this frequency, and the environment and volatility of Ferrari clearly didn’t work well for Vettel. He felt at odds with team management, particularly in later years, and didn’t react well to the challenge posed by new team mate Charles Leclerc.

Inevitably, that led to Ferrari deciding not to renew his contract for 2021. The Vettel at Aston Martin seemed a happier, more relaxed character and, while still inconsistent, he regularly produced performances that had vanished in his final Ferrari year.

然而，失去冷靜并故意在巴庫的安全車下擦身而過的漢密爾頓是更具揭露性的事件。這是一個(gè)非同尋常的時(shí)刻，他對漢密爾頓在比賽重啟前的惡作劇感到惱火，這與維特爾和藹可親、隨和的性格完全不符。甚至維特爾似乎也很難接受自己不可原諒的行為。

2018年，法拉利有一款更強(qiáng)大的全能車，但維特爾犯了太多錯(cuò)誤。在霍根海姆艱難的情況下領(lǐng)先時(shí)滑下被認(rèn)為是維特爾賽季出錯(cuò)的時(shí)刻——這是一個(gè)打擊——但比賽中的失誤率太高了。

這些錯(cuò)誤很明顯。在紅牛車隊(duì)，它們發(fā)生了，但并不是這樣的頻率，法拉利車隊(duì)的環(huán)境和波動顯然對維特爾來說并不好。他感到與球隊(duì)管理層不和，特別是在后來的幾年，對新隊(duì)友查爾斯·勒克萊爾提出的挑戰(zhàn)反應(yīng)不佳。

不可避免的是，這導(dǎo)致法拉利決定不續(xù)簽2021的合同。阿斯頓·馬丁的維特爾似乎是一個(gè)更快樂、更放松的角色，雖然仍然不穩(wěn)定，但他經(jīng)常表現(xiàn)出在法拉利最后一年中消失的表現(xiàn)。

So which is the real Vettel? The fact that that’s the obvious question is symptomatic of the one weakness, which is that he required a narrow set of conditions – both in terms of his environment and car dynamics – to be at his brilliant best. Then, he was as good as anyone has ever been.

Outside of that window, Vettel was a more erratic performer – a trait magnified by being seduced by the understandable allure at Ferrari that plunged him into an environment that was very different to the one he thrived in at Red Bull.

Vettel was a flawed genius, perhaps one of the most human of the great champions in F1. That’s what made him so popular, even if the emotional volatility did sometimes boil over.

While not a man for all seasons, he deserves to be remembered at his brilliant best, doing seemingly impossible things with Red Bull machinery.

那么哪個(gè)才是真正的維特爾？事實(shí)上，這是一個(gè)明顯的問題，這表明了他的一個(gè)弱點(diǎn)，即他需要一套狹窄的條件——無論是在他的環(huán)境還是汽車動力學(xué)方面——才能達(dá)到他最好的狀態(tài)。然后，他和任何人都一樣好。

在那扇窗外，維特爾是一個(gè)更不穩(wěn)定的表演者——這一特點(diǎn)被法拉利的誘惑所放大，這一誘惑讓他陷入了一個(gè)與他在紅牛所處的環(huán)境截然不同的環(huán)境。

維特爾是一個(gè)有缺陷的天才，也許是F1中最人性化的偉大冠軍之一。這就是為什么他如此受歡迎的原因，即使有時(shí)情緒波動確實(shí)會加劇。

雖然他并不是一個(gè)完美的人，但他值得人們記住他最輝煌的時(shí)刻，在紅牛車隊(duì)做了看似不可能的事情。