While his keen (English) sense of humour is all too obvious when out of the car, once in the cockpit with the visor pulled down, Sebastian Vettel is a fearsome opponent, never more so than when winning four consecutive titles, the German displaying the same ruthless determination so often witnessed in his mentor, Michael Schumacher.

But in recent years, Vettel has often allowed his emotions not only get the better of him, but become all too clear to observers, such as that frustrating final season at Red Bull when he was consistently out-shone by teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

Again this year, the German has failed to keep his emotions in check, never more so than Azerbaijan, where his needless assault on title rival Lewis Hamilton was widely and rightly condemned.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, whilst savouring the initial challenge from Vettel and Ferrari this year, believes the German must learn to control his emotions or risk adding further titles to his tally.

He "appears calm but is very emotional and passionate under the skin", he told BBC Sport. "This has made him win championships in the past. This year, it has let him down.

"Lewis by contrast has grown as a personality and as a driver and outside the car and that made him very strong," he added.

Referring to Baku, where Vettel claimed he was reacting after being brake tested by Hamilton, Wolff said: "We immediately looked at the data to see whether you could see something like a brake test and we couldn't see any of that. But Sebastian's emotion and anger just ran away with him in that moment. He would be the first one to acknowledge if he could turn back time he wouldn't do it again."

Then there was the startline incident in Singapore, which saw both Ferraris and Max Verstappen eliminated just seconds into the race.

"I don't know whether it was pressure or not," said the Austrian. "Sebastian knew that in order to score 25 points, he needed to lead the race after the start. And he tried to come in strong and with the lack of visibility in these cars he just triggered a chain reaction."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 25/12/2017 14:02

"The fact is that he gets rattled when challenged. Call it "emotional" if you like, but it's a character flaw that he'll need to eradicate if he's to win a competitive F1 title. If next year's Ferrari is top-dog, then no problem."

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2. Posted by Pete, 22/12/2017 17:17

"It would be easy to argue that those two incidents cost him a total of 53 points versus Hamilton who won the championship by 46 points. (13 point swing in Azerbaijan, 40 point swing in Singapore)."

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Wolff: Emotions let Vettel down

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