Sebastian Vettel drove in a Ferrari for the first time in a Grand Prix in Australia last weekend and his third-place finish in the race suggests his challenge for a fifth Drivers’ Championship will be much stronger this year than his disappointing campaign in 2014.
Vettel will be looking forward to driving around the Sepang International Circuit. He has been successful in Malaysia on three occasions, so he obviously enjoys the track in Asia. If he does manage to come out on top there once again, he will level John MacDonald on four wins which will matching the Brit’s record in the Grand Prix.
For regular Formula One observers, it must have felt very strange seeing the German applying his trade in a Ferrari car after watching him dominate the sport in the Red Bull colours for many years. But this new chapter in his career has been coming for a while as his former constructor were unable to provide him with a car which could challenge the dominant Mercedes team who were first and second in the Drivers’ standings in 2014.
If the German can pick up maximum points this weekend, where he can be backed to do so with a range of bookmakers at www.freebetoffers.co.uk, he will send out a clear message to the rest of his rivals that he is a key player this season. The bookies would also be forced to slash his odds on the Championship, where he is currently third best in the outright market behind the two McLaren drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, respectively.
Vettel and the rest of the Formula One drivers will be keen not to allow reigning champion Hamilton to establish too much of an early lead at the top of the leaderboard after the Brit picked up the chequered flag in Melbourne in the opening race of the new season.
Hamilton was successful 12 months ago in Malaysia so knows how to ride to victory at the track. He dominated the race in Australia after qualifying at the front of the grid, so the qualification ahead of the Grand Prix in Sepang will be very important. If not, it could be another wire-to-wire win for the Mercedes man.
Although Vettel did show some promise last weekend, Hamilton will still see his team-mate and rival Rosberg as his closet threat this season. If the pair again get into a heated battle, it could play into the hands of the Ferrari driver as he may go unnoticed in a lot of races in 2015.
There is a long way to go in this year’s battle for the Drivers’ Championship and although you cannot win the title in the opening half of the campaign, you can certainly fall out of the running if you do not pick up enough points.
As for Vettel’s team-mate, Felipe Massa, he has not won a race since he came home first in the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix in his home country. The title may be too far out of his reach this year but a victory somewhere in 2015 may be realistic.
