Sebastian Vettel is team player. In fact, he worships his team. He's even got helmets with his mechanics faces and names on them. Mark Webber, senior driver, and who's been at Red Bull for two years before Vettel, hasn't won a single championship. And he doesn't worship his team as publicly as Vettel does.

Result? Vettel, triple world drivers champion. Webber? Handful of wins.

Of course, the Red Bull is a car designed specifically for Vettel's driving style. But why hasn't the car been designed for Webber?





Even in the Ferrari garage, Massa has been at Ferrari for about 6 years now. Alonso, barely 3 years. But the Ferrari F1 team is Alonso's team. Alonso, as you'll notice, is full blooded team player. He never ever blames the team. He might accept that his car is pretty shoddy, but he won't moan about it.

At McLaren, both Jensen and Hamilton credited their team for their wins, so there isn't much of a difference between them performance-wise.

Even at Team Lotus, or the Enstone team, Kimi has realized this and he too has started thanking and praising his team no matter where he finished. And he did finish in the points an awful lot of times. In Abu Dhabi, he shrugged of his victory, and told the media it was for the team. He barely smiled after winning.

But Vettel really does look at Formula 1 as a team sport, and I don't think he even thinks about shifting to another team, so good is his relationship with his engineers and mechanics who build his car. Of course, Vettel's mentality and driving style are also factors for his success, but the anyone can see that motivating the team is a major factor to win championships.

In Abu Dhabi, Vettel started from the pitlane and finished on the podium with P3. He kept thanking and motivating his team on the radio, "never lift boys. Even in the room before stepping on the podium, he was genuinely a happy man, joking around with Kimi. Alonso on the other hand, was in shock I think, to see Vettel on the podium, and he kept to himself.


So the team working behind the scenes, away from the limelight is a critical part to win a championship. Theoretically the team is supposed to give equal attention to both drivers, but of course, it is never that way...