Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari can give Mercedes run for Formula One title

Once-scorned, the German driver is the fans' best hope to end the Mercedes-GP dominance, writes Graham Caygill.

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has shown plenty of promise at Ferrari and could pose a challenge to Mercedes-GP in 2016. Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP

There is a certain irony that the man responsible for one of the most dominant spells in the history of Formula One is the one most purists hope can save the sport from another year of relentless Mercedes-GP success in 2016.

Sebastian Vettel has not always been the most popular man with F1 fans, most notably during that spell in 2013 when he won nine races in succession on his way to the most recent of his four world championships.

He is the only non-Mercedes driver to triumph this season, in his first year with Ferrari, and he has been the only man to consistently challenge them in a season where the Mercedes W06, especially in the hands of Lewis Hamilton, has been the class of the field.

It has been an impressive first year for the German at Ferrari and he has been re-established as one of the best drivers on the grid.

The hope is now that he and Ferrari can make a further improvement in performance over the winter and be able to fight for race wins on a level playing field with Mercedes next year.

It is what the sport needs badly.

The first year of Mercedes domination was accepted because Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had such a tense title fight.

Unfortunately, Hamilton sauntered to this year’s championship, and a repeat of that in 2016 is hardly going to be good news for the entertainment value of the sport or boost declining TV ratings.

What F1 needs is a fight at the front between at least two teams, who push each other to the limit and try different things to come out on top.

That is where Vettel and Ferrari come in.

The Italian team have made huge strides since their winless 2014, their worst F1 season in 21 years.

They are not on the pace of Mercedes yet, but they have been close enough to capitalise on any mistakes from the German marque when they have come their way.

The step forward in performance was clear in the Brazilian Grand Prix earlier this month.

In the 2014 race at Sao Paulo, the highest Ferrari finisher was Fernando Alonso in sixth, who was one minute behind the Mercedes cars at the finish.

This year, Vettel finished 15 seconds behind, and such was his threat that Mercedes changed their pit strategy to cover him.

It feels odd to write that a four-time world champion could have something yet to prove, but Vettel, after a poor final season with Red Bull Racing last year, was in that position.

It was the first time in his career that he had gone a season in F1 without a victory, but what hurt him was the fact he was out-performed by Daniel Ricciardo.

The Red Bull was a race-winning car last year, but not in Vettel’s hands; he never looked like challenging.

Ricciardo won three races and the Australian’s success inadvertently raised questions over what Vettel had achieved.

Yes, Vettel had his titles, 39 wins and 45 pole positions, at that stage in his career, but maybe it had just been the Red Bull car that was the driving force in his success.

His teammate for his championship run, Mark Webber, had rarely been a consistent match for the German after he had gone so close himself to winning the 2010 title, which had instead been Vettel’s first.

What if he had someone like Ricciardo around him then, rather than Webber?

Vettel in many ways has answered those doubts this season, and not just because of his victories in Malaysia, Hungary and Singapore.

The Ferrari is an improvement on the team that finished on the podium only twice in 2014, but of their 15 podium-finishes this year, 13 belong to Vettel.

He has been consistent and fast and has proven himself a big-game player by winning on every occasion that an opportunity to challenge presented itself.

The Ferrari is a good car but not a great one, and the fact his teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, has had such meagre results suggests that Vettel, now veteran of 28, has clearly made a difference.

Raikkonen has been consistently second best to Vettel, and the 2007 world champion is fortunate to have been kept on by Ferrari for 2016.

That probably has more to do with the fact that he and Vettel get on well, and the Finn has been content, at least in public, with playing second fiddle in the Ferrari team. Vettel in the past has not always dealt well with the being beaten by a teammate.

Webber, in his book Aussie Grit, tells a story in the 2010 season of Red Bull fabricating a problem with Vettel’s car after a race as a way of trying to allow him to justify in his head being beaten by a man in equal equipment.

A happy Vettel is a fast Vettel appeared to be the thinking, and it certainly worked then, and clearly he is thriving in the current environment at Ferrari, so why change it?

Can Vettel win this weekend at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix?

He certainly knows how; he won here in 2009, 2010 and 2013.

But, realistically, he will again be the man leading the chase of the Mercedes cars, ready to exploit any mistakes by Hamilton or Rosberg.

If there is one thing we have learnt this season it is this: if opportunity offers, Vettel will be there to take it.