David Coulthard's Korean Grand Prix preview
The 13-time grand prix winner looks ahead to the Korean Grand Prix and reckons it could be a seminal moment in the McLaren career of Jenson Button as he tries to put the championship runner-up spot out of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton's reach
Jackie Stewart contends that it's more difficult to defend the world championship than to win it for the first time; that after you reach the pinnacle once, you can struggle. In the case of Mika Hakkinen, my title-winning McLaren team-mate in 1998 and '99, he went away at the end of the season elated with his first title, but he was deflated in the first part of the following year before he rebuilt the energy to go for it again.
So what Sebastian Vettel has done in winning back-to-back world championships in so dominant a style is remarkable. It's as if being champion last year has allowed him to unlock something and move to another level. He does make mistakes - and there have been crashes during Friday practice, as we saw at Suzuka - but very few. He's stepped up, while by contrast Mark Webber has struggled and never had the rub of the green.
Share Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.