Sebastian Vettel vs Lance Stroll: Who will come out on top?

In the second teammate battle for 2021, we take a look at yet another world champion at a new team, taking on a young talent. This time, it’s Sebastian Vettel versus Lance Stroll.

With four world championships to his name, Vettel is arguably one of the greatest drivers to ever sit inside an Formula 1 car, and with his consecutive titles at Red Bull Racing, he possessed a similar dominance to which Lewis Hamilton is currently experiencing in the sport.

However, his last title was in 2013, and he has suffered at the hands of the Tifosi at Ferrari since then. 

Therefore, his battle with Stroll will certainly be one to keep an eye on.

Stroll is going into his third season with the team now rebranded as Aston Martin, and his fifth in F1, so despite his tender age of just 22, the same as rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazpein, he is far from inexperienced in the sport.

It will now be expected of Stroll to contribute heavily to feedback on the car’s performance, and indeed improve his own performance, due to his fairly severe experience in F1. 

The Canadian has been partnered with Sergio Perez for the past two years, and the Mexican’s knowledge no doubt helped him develop his racecraft; expect Vettel to perform a similar role this year.

Vettel knows how to win races and having been on the podium three times, the next step for Stroll is to have P1 written next to his name; who better to learn from than a man who’s won 53 races, the third most in history?

By the time he was 26, Vettel had won more races than all but two drivers in F1 history, and he is the youngest ever world champion; now 33, he’s the poster boy for Aston Martin’s return to the elite motorsport competition.

2020 Form:

After seven years at Ferrari, longer than he spent at Red Bull, Vettel has finally left the Italian outfit, and he will be disappointed that his spell with the Prancing Horses didn’t add another title to his cabinet. It instead left a bittersweet taste in the mouth after a hugely disappointing 2020 which saw him finish 13th in the championship, 65 points behind teammate Charles Leclerc, and his worst since his maiden F1 campaign.

That has caused some to doubt whether Vettel still has the speed that propelled him to those four consecutive world titles, but a new environment could be exactly what he needs.

Known as Racing Point last season, the team were nicknamed ‘the Pink Mercedes’ due to its resemblance to the 2019 title winning car, and with Stroll and Perez behind the wheel, they were rapid all season, finishing fourth in the constructor’s championship.

So although Stroll wiped the floor with Vettel in terms of points last year, 75 to 33, the gap wasn’t as great as it seems on the face of things.

Stroll finished 50 points behind teammate Perez, and as mentioned earlier, Vettel was 65 points worse off than Leclerc. Both were outperformed by the other driver in identical equipment last year, and both will want to put that right this year.

But who will?

Just as with Fernando Alonso against Esteban Ocon, history and experience swings heavily in one direction. Vettel’s.

However, the German has suffered a decline over the past few years, beaten by Leclerc in both their years as teammates, and overall looking uncomfortable in the Ferrari.

Moving to Aston Martin, he will hope to add to both his 53 race victories and 121 podiums, and with a Mercedes engine powering him for the first time in his career, it could be a match made in heaven.

Stroll will certainly have something to say about that however, and he himself improved monumentally last year, achieving two podiums and a pole position as he gained 54 more points than the previous season. He adapted to the car and found his form, and if it wasn’t for five DNF’s and one DNS, due to coronavirus, he likely would’ve finished much higher than eleventh in the championship.

Vettel quite frankly looked sluggish last year, but it was clear that he needed a fresh start; at Aston Martin he gets that but up against Stroll, who is unfairly criticised due to his father’s wealth and influence in his rise through the ranks, the veteran could be seriously challenged.

If Stroll can repeat his early season form that saw him score 57 points in the opening eight races in 2020, then Vettel will have a fight on his hands to better the Canadian.

Is he up to the task?

Find out on Sunday.