#dang good article really. and good perspective of 2015...

[vetteldixon]

I was once treated to a stark example of Vettel’s race-face dark side when he effectively lost the Formula 3 Euroseries title to Paul di Resta in 2006 at Le Mans.

Vettel had already spun a podium finish away in race one, but compounded this by running through the gravel in race two, easing di Resta’s march to the title. Beaten twice by his teammate, the cardinal sin… Imagine the rollicking he’d have received from Dr Marko for that one!

It was the seminal weekend of that season, and I probably broke quite a few rules by gatecrashing parc ferme while the French marshals weren’t looking. I intercepted Vettel in the queue for the weighing scales, literally seconds after he’d got out of the car and removed his crash helmet.

Gone was the tousled-haired smiley kid I’d been keeping tabs on since Formula BMW, where he was clearly a stand-out talent and with a genuinely engaging personality to go with it every time we spoke.

I suddenly felt like I was in a scene from the exorcist – this simply wasn’t the same person I had grown accustomed to dealing with. The most remarkable aspect was he didn’t even sound like his regular self as he growled one-word responses to my questions to what had gone so badly wrong.

In fact, the only multi-word response I got was him suggesting that I’d got what I wanted as a fellow Brit was now going to win the title! Talk about out of character…

So, while I’ll acknowledge that he has a dark side, for want of a better phrase, the other 99 percent of the time Vettel has been nothing but gracious, generous with his time and genuinely funny to be around.

Besides, show me an elite sportsman and multiple world champion who doesn’t pack the ability to be utterly ruthless and single-minded when it suits them?

~from “Sebastian Vettel hasn’t changed a bit--but perceptions of him have” for motorsport.com by Charles Bradley

#sebastian vettel #f1 #hungarian gp 2015 #i love this song #junior series seb #dang good article really. and good perspective of 2015... #sigh. everything happens so much