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 Even allowing for an August shutdown and three-month winter break,
that single statistic highlights just how demoralizing a year it has
been for all those trying to beat Red Bull's quadruple world
champion.
The cheeky-faced 26-year-old, soon to be a father, could have
clinched his employers fourth successive constructors' championship
on his own given that he amassed more points (397) than any other
team over the 19 races.
The finger-pointing German chalked up nine wins in a row, the first
time any driver has done that in a single campaign since the
championship started in 1950, and 13 in total to equal compatriot
Michael Schumacher's 2004 record with Ferrari.
The youngest quadruple champion also became the first to win his
first four titles successively.
Rallying shrugged off nine years of Sebastien Loeb domination to
crown another French Sebastien, Ogier, in a debut season for
Volkswagen while MotoGP hailed the top category's youngest ever
champion in Honda's 20-year-old Spanish sensation Marc Marquez.
But in Formula One and NASCAR, where Jimmie Johnson celebrated his
sixth Sprint Cup championship in eight years, it was more of the
same.
Some early rising television viewers may have opted to go back under
the bedcovers, or take the dog for a walk, rather than watching
Vettel win yet again but others were happy to give credit where it
was due and recognize a special talent.
On the evidence of this year, Vettel can look forward to new
milestones — and more of the tire-smoking victory "donuts" — in 2014
as his career increasingly draws comparison with the best of the
best.
Victory in Australia would make him the first driver to win 10 races
in a row and take his career tally to 40 wins — just one short of
the number amassed by the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna.
Another title, in a year that will see Russia make its debut and
Austria return after India and South Korea bowed out, would equal
Schumacher's record of five in a row.
The good news for rival teams and fans yearning for change at the
top is that past performance, as any fund manager will attest, does
not guarantee future success and 2014 could be very different to
2013.
"You never know what's going to happen, next year is an unknown,"
Vettel said in November. "I'm sure we will fight a lot to maintain
our position but there's no guarantee that next year will be like
this year."
END OF ERA
This year marked the end of an era, on the technical side at least,
and the start of a new journey into an uncertain future.
The trusty V8 engine has been pensioned off, screaming into
retirement, to be replaced by something potentially far less
reliable — and much more expensive — in the form of a turbocharged
V6 unit with energy recovery systems.
Ferrari, beaten to the runners-up slot by Mercedes, have waved
Brazilian Felipe Massa off to Williams and welcomed back their 2007
champion Kimi Raikkonen — who complained of not being paid by Lotus — as Fernando Alonso's team mate in a line-up of champions.
Whether the biggest rule change in a generation can also transform
the pecking order remains to be seen, with Vettel still very much a
favorite, but there is a realistic chance that it will.
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Nobody knows which of the three manufacturers will produce
the best engine and, in a bid to keep interest in the
championship going for longer, the governing FIA has decided
controversially to award double points for the final race of the
season in Abu Dhabi.
The fans, some of whom took to booing Vettel on his increasingly
routine trips to the top of the podium, were scathing about 'Abu
Double' and what they saw as a needless gimmick — with the
champion very much in agreement.
They were not too happy after this year's Malaysian Grand Prix
at Sepang either when Vettel ignored team orders (the famous
'Multi 21, Seb') and passed Australian team mate Mark Webber for
the win.
The German will not have to worry about Webber next year, with
the no-nonsense veteran deciding enough was enough and leaving
Formula One for a new future with Porsche in their Le Mans
sportscar program.
Instead Vettel will have a younger, smilier and probably more
compliant Australian on the other side of the garage, with
Daniel Ricciardo moving up from Toro Rosso and a steep learning
curve ahead.
TIRE CONTROVERSY
Pirelli will be pleased to see the back of 2013, even if next
year promises to be another big challenge, after a year of
brickbats and blowouts brought the tire supplier plenty of
publicity for all the wrong reasons.
The tires dictated the pace of the championship, with Vettel's
winning spree following changes forced through after a spate of
failures at Silverstone in June threw the sport into crisis and
the season into a tale of two halves.
There was also controversy over a 'secret' tire test carried out
by Pirelli and Mercedes in Spain in May that had rivals up in
arms and the German manufacturer, who won three of the five
races between the test and August break, summoned to the
governing body.
One of those wins was for 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton, whose
switch from McLaren turned up trumps after many had predicted he
was making the wrong move.
Instead it was McLaren, the team who had ended 2012 with the
fastest car, who looked more chumps than champs after ending
their 50th anniversary year without a single podium appearance
for the first time since 1980.
It could have been worse, with Jenson Button grabbing a fourth
place right at the finish in Brazil to stave off the team's
worst overall performance since their Formula One debut season
in 1966.
Mexican Sergio Perez was the fall guy, shown the exit after just
one season at Woking with McLaren putting their trust in a
younger man and signing 21-year-old Danish rookie Kevin
Magnussen to take his place.
"Everything happens for a reason and I'm very confident that in
one year's time I will be here telling you that it was the best
thing that happened to me to leave McLaren," said Perez, before
signing a deal with Force India.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; editing by Justin Palmer)
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