Formula 1: Sebastian Vettel looking to end 10-race win drought

Sebastian Vettel has not won a Formula 1 race since he won the Belgian Grand Prix last August. He will be looking to end his 10-race win drought this Sunday.

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel opened up the 2018 Formula 1 season looking like the clear championship favorite, as he won the season’s first two races and dominated the next two, only to have victories in the latter two races slip away from him due to poor pit strategy and incidents caused by both himself and other drivers.

But throughout much of the remainder of the 21-race season, the 31-year-old German remained well in the championship battle with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton. When Vettel dominated the Belgian Grand Prix in late August, it was really starting to look like he, not Hamilton, would become the third five-time champion in Formula 1 history.

That ultimately did not happen, as Vettel did not win any of the remaining eight races on the 2018 schedule. He is now on a 10-race win drought, the longest win drought he has had since his 26-race win drought, which he ended by winning the 2017 season opener.

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During this 10-race win drought, the four-time champion has recorded four podium finishes, including two second place finishes and two third place finishes, and four spins, including one spin but no podium finishes in the first two races of the 2019 season.

That said, Vettel has not finished outside of the top six during his active win drought, so while he has been extremely mistake-prone during this 10-race stint, he has still finished every race and, in many cases, shown that he has had the pace to be the race winner had he not made the mistakes he has made.

Vettel is set to attempt to end this 10-race win drought in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, which he dominated last season before his pit strategy set him back a few positions and he was then spun out by Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, relegating him to an eighth place finish and preventing him from starting the season with three victories in three races.

Vettel qualified for this Sunday’s race in third place. He is set to enter this 56-lap race around the 16-turn, 3.388-mile (5.452-kilometer) Shanghai International Circuit road course in Jiading, Shanghai, China in fifth in the driver standings with 22 points through the season’s first two races. He even trails teammate Charles Leclerc, who sits in fourth with 26 points, despite the fact that he has been the clearly prioritized driver at Ferrari so far this season.

Given Ferrari’s history of using team orders, it may be time for the elder of the two Mission Winnow-sponsored drivers to enter “win now” mode, as he may not be able to afford his 10-race win drought getting much longer, especially not after the way he has started the 2019 season.

Will Sebastian Vettel end his 10-race win drought by winning this Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix? This race, which is the third of 21 races on the 2019 Formula 1 schedule, is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 2:05 a.m. ET, and it is set to be broadcast live from Shanghai International Circuit on ESPN2.