The final face off  of 2012: Alonso Vs Vettel

The 2012 title fight has gone till the wire to the last race of the season at Brazil, Interlagos. The contenders of the crown are super heavy drivers Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Vettel and super heavy teams Ferrari and Red Bull. Who will win the title is still a question but the clear favorite would be Sebastien Vettel with his 13points lead over Alonso and with a car thats capable of winning as the Ferrari is not.

While RedBull Racing already clinched the Constructor´s title in the US GP but with just one car finishing the race,the big question over Red Bull´s reliability still hangs over as an issue as Webber and Vettel suffered many mechanical failures this year. Red Bull and Vettel won both drivers and constructors titles with strong domination in 2010 and 2011 while this year the team came back strongly into contention only in the last 6 races after a lack luster start to the year. On the other hand Ferrari was clearly a bad car this year but Alonso´s gutsy driving and race strategies gave them the championship lead early in the year while other top teams fumbled. The RedBull and Vettel combination holds the upper hand to grab the crown while Alonso´s strength is the only advantage as the Ferrari could not bring a race winning car.

Vettel won the last 4 of the 6 races and was also close to victory in Abu Dhabi if not for a disqualification for fuel sample failure in Qualifying and a close second to Hamilton in US GP after leading 75% of the race. While Alonso could only do damage limitations and managing to get into the podium slots after a series of bad qualifying with a car thats not a race winner.

But in F1 anything can happen, a car failure for Red Bull or an accident can ruin the title for Vettel giving the championship to Alonso but if not anything happens and everything goes clean, Vettel is the clear favorite for the title with a race winning car under him . Both drivers are two times world champions

The Contenders

Drivers

F1 Career Spec
Fernando Alonso (2 times F1 Champion – 2005,2006)	Sebastian Vettel (2 times F1 Champion –2010,2011)
World Titles: 2 Wins : 30  Podium : 85 Pole : 22 F1 Career : (2001, 2003 – 2012) Current Team : Ferrari  Nationality : Spain  Age : 31 Record :  Youngest F1 World Champion in 2005 at 24	World Titles: 2 Wins : 26  Podium : 46 Pole : 36 F1 Career : (2006,2007 – 2012) Current Team : Red Bull Racing  Nationality : German  Age : 24 Record :  Youngest F1 World Champion in 2010 at 23

Teams
Scuderia Ferrari
Ferrari is one of the oldest teams in F1 history starting in 1950 with 219 race victories, 16 Constructor´s title and 15 drivers title. Ferrari is one of the world´s iconic brands that cannot be separated from F1 as its the only longest surviving brand ever since F1 was born. Ferrari together with Schumacher created historic 12year partnership winning 5 world titles in succession. Ferrari´s last world title was in 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso lost the 2010 title to Vettel on the penultimate race starting with a 15points lead. Ferrari 2012 car was condemned by Alonso as the slowest and the  worse than a shopping cart but they were leading the championship due to some amazing race victories and podiums by Fernando Alonso in difficult conditions.

Red Bull Racing
Red Bull Racing is a very new team which came into existence in 2005 in F1 also with a sister team called Torro Rosso (which also means Red Bull) under the corporate support of Red Bull Energy Drink of Austria, Red Bull Racing was poised to grab top since it was started. The team started with David Coulthard as their lead driver and saw considerable success in their early years but it was Sebastien Vettel who gave Red Bull Racing their first victory in 2009 and first title in 2010 and continued till now. Red Bull Racing won the last 3 Constructor´s title in succession only in their 8th year under the technical guidance of Adrian Newey.


The Favorite
Both the drivers are equally talented and poised for the title but Vettel has one hand on the title with a 13 point lead and a race winning car with only bad luck to ruin his chances.

Alonso is a driver who can win with a worse car but with an under performing car compared to the Red Bull and 13 points deficit he can hope only for the Red Bull´s failure or Vettel ill luck to give him the championship. The drivers are even in strength but Red Bull has an advantage over the Ferrari at the moment. 

The duo fought for the title earlier in 2010 and Vettel won his first World Championship at the final race in Abu Dhabi while Alonso lost the title to Vettel even with a 15points lead going into the race. 

So the roles can also be reversed here as anything can happen but the momentum is with Vettel.

Even if Sebastien Vettel wins the championship with his late year comeback with an able RB8 car under him, Alonso will be regarded as the driver of the year for his impeccable drives on a car that isn´t upto the mark.

All in all racing wins.