Vettel’s triple crown

Sebastian Vettel did exactly what he needed to last weekend in Brazil to take 3 title— but what other moments helped the German elevate his status from champion to legend this season?

Vettel with three world titles, and is one of only three to have taken three in a row. Each success has demonstrated his development as a driver and a person, but this time the fitting 'baton transfer' between him and his countryman, the retiring seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, seemed to mark a coming of age.

In 2010, Vettel took his first title with a smash-and-grab raid as a late run of form and a few lucky breaks saw him leapfrog his rivals at almost the final turn of the season. Last year, with a dominant car, it was far more controlled with Vettel managing his races perfectly to win from the front.  dominance and damage-limitation, which ultimately gave him a narrow margin in a hard fight with Fernando Alonso and Ferrari.

The mark of a champion is not to win at all costs, but simply to collect enough points to take the title. Vettel did all that perfectly.

Vettel was not comfortable at the start of the year because of the ban on double diffusers. A new exhaust layout on the Red Bull gave a strong race pace but caused the car to understeer in qualifying, and that did not suit his aggressive turn-in style.

He got lucky with a safety car to come second in the season-opener, but he missed Q3 for the first time in more than two years in China and could only recover to sixth.

He rather foolishly attempted to steer the team away from their development direction by opting to run an old-spec car in China. In Bahrain, he showed sense and maturity by accepting the team's decision and simply working out how to drive to get the best out of the car. And he won.

It wasn't to be an instant turn-around, but it showed that Vettel was ready to listen to others and happy to admit his approach may not always be the right one.

Throughout 2011, Vettel demonstrated that if he could start from the front, he could control the race — and although it was not until much later this season that he had a regular opportunity to do that, once the car was in the sweet spot he did it time after time.

The RB8 was always a reasonable car, but as McLaren began to become stronger, the relentless pace of development made it hard enough to just stay in the frame, let alone jump ahead of their rivals.

That was until they found a step improvement with the combined double DRS and exhaust changes. The improvements gave Vettel the confidence to get the job done in qualifying and, just as in 2011, once pole was his, there was no stopping him.

His victory in Singapore was lucky, with Hamilton's McLaren suffering a gearbox failure, but the subsequent ones in Japan, Korea and India were classic 2011-vintage Vettel — set pole or grab a front row slot, get out of the DRS attack zone in the early laps and manage the tyres and the race to the finish.