Pit Stop

When Sebastian Vettel burst onto the Formula One scene three years ago he was soon christened by the media as 'Baby Schumi'. You could see their point. He was fast, he was winning races and he looked certain to win the world championship. Oh, and he was German.

It was meant as a compliment, but recently more unfortunate parallels are being drawn. Only Schumacher seems to be able to match him for the chaos he can create on the racetrack. Even his own teammate, Mark Webber has christened him the 'crash kid'.

This weekend at Monza it's important that Vettel has a great race, partly to preserve his reputation. Not converting the vast majority of pole positions into wins has hurt him and his team, but it's his shenanigans on the track that have increasingly been raising eyebrows.

He crashed into his teammate in Turkey, put himself out of contention in Britain after trying to run Webber off the track and in Hungary got punished for being too slow behind the safety car. But it was his senseless crash into Jenson Button that raised the most hackles. Not least of Button who could have seen his chance to retain the championship thwarted in that moment.

If nothing else, Vettel needs a good race to ensure he's not the number two driver behind Mark Webber for the rest of the season. That would hurt the young German deeply. He wants to be world champion and he will know that after the last race there have been some saying he doesn't deserve to win the title this season.

Whatever fate befalls Vettel, it will be a pleasure to be at Monza. It's an old and loved staple among the new tracks and venues springing up in F1. The circus will be in Korea in October, whether the venue is ready or not. Karun Chandhok ran the first laps of the Yeongam circuit at the weekend and although the Indian driver said the garages and team buildings are finished, not everything is.