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How Vettel got an edge over his rivals

Only one F1 driver visited Pirelli's factory last year in order to gather all the information possible ahead of its return to the sport this year. As Jonathan Noble explains, there are no big prizes for guessing who that driver was

Here is a Formula 1 quiz question for you. Out of the regular drivers who have thrilled us with their racing this year, how many of them thought it would be a good idea to go and visit Pirelli's headquarters last winter to find out all about its tyres ahead of its grand prix racing return?

Was it just the frontrunners who could be bothered to take a day out of their holidays to go and get an understanding of what to expect from Pirelli's products in 2011? After all, it made perfect sense to find out what was on the horizon, with F1 openly preparing itself for a very different type of rubber compared to what had been delivered before.

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.