Comparing Sebastian Vettel’s 1st DSFL Season With His 1st F1 Season
Unless you lived under a rock from 2009-2013 (or have absolutely zero interest in motorsports), you probably know that Sebastian Vettel is arguably one of the top 5-10 greatest drivers in the history of Formula 1. I’m not biased at all (just ignore the fact that I’ve created my simulation football player in his image). But there’s no arguing that the guy who won 4 straight Formula 1 Driver’s Championships is one of the great ones. If you go back to the beginnings of his Formula 1 career, he was always pretty good. Here’s the question: is his simulation football career going to follow a similar trajectory to his Formula 1 career? Obviously, we won’t know that until his NSFL career is over, but it’s certainly pretty fun (at least for me, anyway) to talk about it and make some possibly outrageous predictions.
So, let’s take a look at what we KNOW. His first season as a simulation football player is complete. We can at least look at the facts there and compare them to the facts of his first Formula 1 season. Strap in for a brief Formula 1 history lesson.
Sebastian Vettel’s first full season in Formula 1 was in 2008 driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso. Toro Rosso was considered to be a middle of the pack team; good enough to challenge for points, but probably not good enough to win races. That season, he started every race but did not finish in 6 of them; however, he scored in the points in every other race that season but one (for you non-F1 fans, finishing a race in the points is pretty much a win for those middle of the pack teams). He did manage to win a race and became the youngest ever pole position winner in the history of Formula 1 at that season’s Italian Grand Prix. He finished the season 8th in the driver’s standings. The team finished 6th overall out of 11 teams in Formula 1. Looking back, most people consider Vettel’s first season to be a decent success. He won a race in a mid-level car and finished in the top half of the standings as a rookie. A little interesting sidenote: Seb’s win at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix remains to this day the ONLY win in the history of Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Vettel’s first full season in the DSFL was in S21, playing safety for the Minnesota Grey Ducks. The Grey Ducks came into S21 as the defending DSFL champions; everybody thought that the team would be at least playoff contender yet again. That season, he started and finished every game at free safety. Vettel had a very good individual performance; he finished 2nd in the entire league in interceptions with 4 picks, including one returned for a touchdown. He had a very well-rounded total stat line for the season, with 50 tackles (2 for loss), 3 sacks, 4 interceptions, 4 passes defensed, and 1 defensive touchdown. His team awarded him the game ball for his week 5 performance against the Portland Pythons; that week, he contributed at every level of the defense with 7 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 pass defensed, and 1 interception. The Ducks defense finished the season 4th in the DSFL in total defense. The team as a whole, however, finished 3rd in their conference and did not make the playoffs. Vettel was listed on a few post-season awards predictions as a darkhorse contender for Defensive Back of the Year, and generally his first DSFL season was considered to be a success from an individual standpoint. However, football is a team game, and the team had a generally disappointing season. The Ducks defense was one of the bright spots for the team, though.
From my perspective, both of these seasons compare pretty favorably. Vettel was a solid performer on both Toro Rosso and Minnesota’s teams. He had an individual win with Toro Rosso at the Italian Grand Prix, and you could say he had an “individual” win of sorts against Portland in week 5 with the Ducks. Both Toro Rosso and the Ducks defense finished in the middle of the pack (yes, the Ducks as a team finished near the bottom, but Vettel played only on defense and it fits my narrative better so that’s what I’m going with). He came out of both seasons as someone people would talk about as an “up and coming” driver/player. I think you can consider both rookie seasons to be a general success.
So, what does that say about projecting the future of Vettel’s simulation football career? Honestly, probably nothing. There’s no correlation between being a dominant open-wheel racing driver and being a dominant free safety in football. This is all just for fun at the end of the day.
But let’s pretend that there’s some kind of connection. After Vettel’s 2008 rookie season in Formula 1, in 2009 he finished 2nd in the driver’s standings and his team (Red Bull-Renault Racing) finished 2nd overall as well. Then, in 2010, he narrowly won his first driver’s and team championship. He would go on to dominate in 2011, 2012, and 2013, winning four championships in a row. In 2011 and 2013, he would finish the season more than 100 points ahead of the 2nd place driver. Can we expect the same from Vettel’s NSFL career? With absolutely no bias whatsoever, I’m going to say that we should expect maybe not THAT level of domination, but a very high level of success. Vettel as a competitor has a history of winning. He’s been a champion at some point in everything he’s competed in. There’s no reason to think this will be any different, especially after the very solid rookie year that he had with the Minnesota Grey Ducks. Football is a team game, so he can’t win championships single-handedly like he did in Formula 1. That being said, I think people will look back on Vettel’s career and, just like his Formula 1 career, they will say that he was probably a top 10 safety of all time (again, absolutely no bias here). Hopefully there will be a string of 4 straight championships sprinkled into his NSFL career somewhere as well.
1.5x media, 1050 words
Unless you lived under a rock from 2009-2013 (or have absolutely zero interest in motorsports), you probably know that Sebastian Vettel is arguably one of the top 5-10 greatest drivers in the history of Formula 1. I’m not biased at all (just ignore the fact that I’ve created my simulation football player in his image). But there’s no arguing that the guy who won 4 straight Formula 1 Driver’s Championships is one of the great ones. If you go back to the beginnings of his Formula 1 career, he was always pretty good. Here’s the question: is his simulation football career going to follow a similar trajectory to his Formula 1 career? Obviously, we won’t know that until his NSFL career is over, but it’s certainly pretty fun (at least for me, anyway) to talk about it and make some possibly outrageous predictions.
So, let’s take a look at what we KNOW. His first season as a simulation football player is complete. We can at least look at the facts there and compare them to the facts of his first Formula 1 season. Strap in for a brief Formula 1 history lesson.
Sebastian Vettel’s first full season in Formula 1 was in 2008 driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso. Toro Rosso was considered to be a middle of the pack team; good enough to challenge for points, but probably not good enough to win races. That season, he started every race but did not finish in 6 of them; however, he scored in the points in every other race that season but one (for you non-F1 fans, finishing a race in the points is pretty much a win for those middle of the pack teams). He did manage to win a race and became the youngest ever pole position winner in the history of Formula 1 at that season’s Italian Grand Prix. He finished the season 8th in the driver’s standings. The team finished 6th overall out of 11 teams in Formula 1. Looking back, most people consider Vettel’s first season to be a decent success. He won a race in a mid-level car and finished in the top half of the standings as a rookie. A little interesting sidenote: Seb’s win at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix remains to this day the ONLY win in the history of Scuderia Toro Rosso.
Vettel’s first full season in the DSFL was in S21, playing safety for the Minnesota Grey Ducks. The Grey Ducks came into S21 as the defending DSFL champions; everybody thought that the team would be at least playoff contender yet again. That season, he started and finished every game at free safety. Vettel had a very good individual performance; he finished 2nd in the entire league in interceptions with 4 picks, including one returned for a touchdown. He had a very well-rounded total stat line for the season, with 50 tackles (2 for loss), 3 sacks, 4 interceptions, 4 passes defensed, and 1 defensive touchdown. His team awarded him the game ball for his week 5 performance against the Portland Pythons; that week, he contributed at every level of the defense with 7 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 pass defensed, and 1 interception. The Ducks defense finished the season 4th in the DSFL in total defense. The team as a whole, however, finished 3rd in their conference and did not make the playoffs. Vettel was listed on a few post-season awards predictions as a darkhorse contender for Defensive Back of the Year, and generally his first DSFL season was considered to be a success from an individual standpoint. However, football is a team game, and the team had a generally disappointing season. The Ducks defense was one of the bright spots for the team, though.
From my perspective, both of these seasons compare pretty favorably. Vettel was a solid performer on both Toro Rosso and Minnesota’s teams. He had an individual win with Toro Rosso at the Italian Grand Prix, and you could say he had an “individual” win of sorts against Portland in week 5 with the Ducks. Both Toro Rosso and the Ducks defense finished in the middle of the pack (yes, the Ducks as a team finished near the bottom, but Vettel played only on defense and it fits my narrative better so that’s what I’m going with). He came out of both seasons as someone people would talk about as an “up and coming” driver/player. I think you can consider both rookie seasons to be a general success.
So, what does that say about projecting the future of Vettel’s simulation football career? Honestly, probably nothing. There’s no correlation between being a dominant open-wheel racing driver and being a dominant free safety in football. This is all just for fun at the end of the day.
But let’s pretend that there’s some kind of connection. After Vettel’s 2008 rookie season in Formula 1, in 2009 he finished 2nd in the driver’s standings and his team (Red Bull-Renault Racing) finished 2nd overall as well. Then, in 2010, he narrowly won his first driver’s and team championship. He would go on to dominate in 2011, 2012, and 2013, winning four championships in a row. In 2011 and 2013, he would finish the season more than 100 points ahead of the 2nd place driver. Can we expect the same from Vettel’s NSFL career? With absolutely no bias whatsoever, I’m going to say that we should expect maybe not THAT level of domination, but a very high level of success. Vettel as a competitor has a history of winning. He’s been a champion at some point in everything he’s competed in. There’s no reason to think this will be any different, especially after the very solid rookie year that he had with the Minnesota Grey Ducks. Football is a team game, so he can’t win championships single-handedly like he did in Formula 1. That being said, I think people will look back on Vettel’s career and, just like his Formula 1 career, they will say that he was probably a top 10 safety of all time (again, absolutely no bias here). Hopefully there will be a string of 4 straight championships sprinkled into his NSFL career somewhere as well.
1.5x media, 1050 words
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"I don't care too much what happened in the past. I prefer to focus on what is coming next and I'm really looking forward to it."
- Sebastian Vettel
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Best of luck in the coming seasons!
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