The secret of Vettel's will to win

Want to know why Sebastian Vettel just keeps on winning, even when he already has enough points to win the constructors' championship single-handedly and a fourth driver's crown is already in the bag?

The answer is simple; he understands how transient, how fleeting success can be no matter how good you are. It is a lesson that is not easily understood - certainly in someone who is still only 26 - but the evidence is there for all to see.

Vettel now has 37 grand prix wins. He is favourite to win the final two races of the season, which would take his tally to 39.

After that, who knows? More wins and championships certainly seem on the cards, but you never know what might happen.

Had you been asked at the end of the 2007 season how many world championships Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso would have collectively accrued over the ensuing six seasons, what would your answer have been? More than the one Hamilton claimed in 2008, certainly.

And when Jacques Villeneuve let both McLarens past to win the 1997 European Grand Prix, safe in the knowledge that he was world champion, he would have found the idea that he would never finish even as high as second in a grand prix again, let alone win one, risible.

Brazil 2012, and Vettel looked to have lost the title on the opening lap © XPB

Vettel has had some close calls in his career. He stands before us a quadruple world champion. But what if Ferrari had not stuffed up its strategy in the 2010 Abu Dhabi GP? Surely, it would have been Alonso who was crowned.

And what if the hit he suffered on the first lap in last year's Brazilian GP had been fatal to his Red Bull? That's two championships out of the window straight away.

You don't win so narrowly without learning how easy it is for things to slip through your fingers.

That tells you one of the reasons why Vettel was able to find the desire to be so crushingly dominant in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. And make no mistake, it was an utterly imperious performance. From the moment he started to draw alongside Mark Webber at the start of the race, his victory was never in doubt as the numbers of the race show us.

LAP 1

Vettel leads Nico Rosberg over the line by 1.986s, with Webber 2.699s further back. As first-lap pace is largely circumstantial, this will be disregarded.

STINT 1

As Webber pitted at the end of lap eight, this only gives six laps (lap 2-7) for a direct comparison of his pace to Vettel. Both were on the same soft compound tyres, albeit with the caveat that the Australian was behind Nico Rosberg and therefore not necessarily able to show his full pace.

Even so, the fact remains that by the time Webber started his in-lap, Vettel already had 9.771s over his team-mate with an average advantage of 1.179s in the comparable laps.

Vettel beat Webber away from the line and simply disappeared © XPB

Vettel was also able to go six laps longer on his first set of tyres. During that phase, he was able to pull more time on Webber. He emerged from his pit-stop still in the lead and was 18.381s clear of Webber at the end of his outlap even though he spent 1.1s longer in the pit-lane.

So by the end of lap 15 (27.2 per cent race distance), Vettel had already built up not far short of two-thirds (59.6 per cent to be precise) of the lead he would have at the chequered flag.

Oh, and he had a tyre advantage too, thanks to be able to run six laps longer than Webber.

STINT 2

With the two Red Bull drivers now offset to the tune of six laps thanks to Vettel's later pit-stop, there are 17 laps during the middle stint during which both were lapping on what might be termed relatively normal medium tyres, from lap 16-32.

The raw numbers of that period show Vettel pulling a further 12.264s on Webber at an average of 0.724s per lap.

That number is a little misleading. Firstly, Webber spent laps 16-20 catching and then passing Nico Rosberg. These laps can be disregarded, leaving the sample period now lap 21-32. In that spell, Vettel pulls 4.086s on Webber at an average of 0.341 per lap.

Even accounting for traffic, Vettel was significantly quicker than Webber © XPB

That is a relatively representative comparison, as fuel levels will not have been dramatically different. Given the degradation on the mediums was modest, the fact Webber's tyres were six laps older would not have made a massive difference.

Even if we call it a pretty generous half-a-tenth, that still makes the difference nearly three-tenths per lap.

And remember, this at a point where Vettel appeared to be starting to take it very easy. Webber certainly had less margin for relaxing given that Rosberg was still a threat.

STINT 3

Unsurprisingly, Webber was the first to pit for a final set of mediums, this time four laps before Vettel did so.

Vettel's lead was already just over 30 seconds by the time Webber pitted, and once Vettel had completed his outlap he was 31.348s up the road from his team-mate, having gained six-tenths in the pit-lane and nailed a quicker outlap.

By this time, Vettel was in cruise control mode, something that was abundantly clear from the radio messages from race engineer Guillaume 'Rocky' Rocquelin urging him not to get involved in any fastest-lap chasing shenanigans or getting mixed up with traffic (Vettel did both).

Actually, Webber gained a total of 0.591s over Vettel in the comparable laps in the final stint (39-55).

But Vettel's fastest lap attempt, a 1m43.893 on lap 51, gave an idea of his potential pace relative to Webber, who still had Rosberg to be wary of, if not necessarily worried about. Webber's fastest lap was on the 49th, a 1m44.364s.

Vettel was rampant on Sunday despute being outshone in qualifying © LAT

Relative tyre degradation was not a significant factor as Vettel was on his 14th lap of a stint and Webber his 16th. The fundamental difference in the potential of the tyre at that point is negligible (let's say a generous 0.017 on the same basis as the previous estimate).

Webber would also have had two more laps worth of fuel on board, so maybe all things considered that deficit rounds up to somewhere in the region of three-tenths.

It doesn't sound like much, but in F1 terms, three-tenths is a lifetime. But what really impressed about Vettel was that, as always, he was in a position to press home the advantage he had.

Unlike his team-mate, he got the start right and from there was able to capitalise on clean air to build a big advantage at the same time as making his tyres last. Even though he cruised in the final stint, he was able to win by half-a-minute.

And that is the secret of his dominance. Although he did underachieve in qualifying, Vettel executed his race to perfection, turning an advantage that would add up to victory by 16.5s over 55 laps into one almost twice that.

And it could have been even bigger.

His race was proof that your results are not simply a consequence of being able to drive quickly, but to string everything together.

And with the championship done, why does he do this? Because he knows that, as great a driver as he is, with such big changes afoot next season, the good times are not guaranteed to last forever.

In all probability, Vettel win will many more races and more titles. He's too good not to.

But in a sport where even the greats have to be in the right place at the right time, nothing is guaranteed.