Why Vettel's dominance is no turn-off

It's dominance, but not like we know it. For anyone who loves the ups and downs of a Formula 1 season, it's always a bit of a disappointment when there is one car and one driver head and shoulders above the rest.

We all prefer the awesome title showdowns that we have been treated to in recent years, which is something that - on current form - is not going to happen in 2011 as Sebastian Vettel marches towards what looks like his second crown.

Such superiority in most sports can sometimes be a turn-off for fans - who tune in to watch their favourite teams or sportsmen battling it out with at least a shout of victory. If the result is a foregone conclusion before the contest has started, where is the entertainment?

Yet, something different is happening in F1 this year - even though the results do appear to be a bit of a foregone conclusion on Sunday afternoons.

Because while Vettel storms on to success after success, the fans are not turning off. In fact, it's turning into the opposite: F1 2011 style is turning out to be more of an attraction this year even though the results seem a bit one-sided at the moment.

The reason for that is, I think, quite clear. We've got the racing back.

Just look at those closing stages of the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend. They were absolutely magical.

To watch three of the best men in the business battling wheel-to-wheel on totally different strategies as the laps counted down to the chequered flag was a pure pleasure to behold - and it was such a shame that the red flag wrecked what would surely have been an amazing climax.

Thanks to a combination of Pirelli, the Drag Reduction System, and KERS, F1 fans this year are being treated to afternoons where every lap is now important for the outcome of a race, and the end result only becomes clear in the closing stages - not after the cars exit the first corner.

In years gone by, the man in the fastest car would be able to qualify his machine at the front of the grid and, if the getaway was clean, head off into Turn 1 knowing that a standard stop for tyres or fuel would pretty much guarantee them victory.

How different things are now. The high degradation of tyres means that the undercut afforded by pitstops guarantees that the man in second place can now have an advantage coming into the pits. This is providing tremendous strategy options for those that do not have the quickest car - but tactics can only be played out over full race distances now.

If you watch at home, it is no longer a case of switching the television on at the start, popping out to mow the lawn after the first lap and then pondering a return for the end of the race to see who won. Instead you not only have to sit there for the whole show to work out if Vettel's one-stopper is going to be enough to hold off Fernando Alonso's two or Jenson Button's three - you are actually now phoning up your mates, or telling them via Facebook or Twitter that they'd better get their televisions on and watch it for themselves. Modern social media is helping further boost F1.

In a conversation with Pirelli F1 boss Paul Hembery a few races ago, he said that television stations were finding viewing patterns for the races to be very different in 2011. The peak of viewers is no longer at the start - it's coming at the end.

To prove what he said, the BBC provided me with this breakdown of viewership over 15 minute periods for the last two Spanish Grands Prix - and what a difference there is.

In 2010, as Mark Webber held off the attentions of Lewis Hamilton and Vettel for much of the afternoon, the audience steadily drifted away over the course of the race. With five million viewers at the start, there was a low of 4.8 million viewers by 2pm UK time before it rebounded up slightly for the end.

Now, compare that to the 2011 race, when 5.4 million tuned in at the start. From then on, as a fantastic afternoon of racing unfolded, more and more people tuned in. At the race finish there was a peak of 6.2 million to witness Vettel's brilliant efforts in holding off Hamilton.

These figures are great news for F1, and it shows that fans are getting excited by the 'racing' - even if the result itself looks from the outside to be a little predictable.

And the fact that there is racing means that Vettel is having to work hard for each win - which means we appreciate more the efforts he is having to deliver.

Less people watched the start of the Spanish Grand Prix than the end © LAT

It is little wonder that Christian Horner said after Monaco last weekend that he believed his young German driver had delivered over the past two weekends the best victories of his career.

So even though we are staring down the barrel of a one-man race to the World Championship, there is still plenty to get excited about on Sunday afternoons. This is good news for fans, teams, drivers, the media and sponsors.

And we may well even hit that magical point where fans tune in to admire the brilliance of the best man in the sport - just as there has always been admiration rather than resignation for some of the sport's greats - as was the case with Muhammad Ali in boxing, Bjorn Borg in tennis and Tiger Woods in golf.

For too long, dominance was seen as a turn-off in F1. Not any more.