2017 was title capable car.
It was Vettel's spectacular performances which made you believe that the car was title capable. Just watch the second half pace deficit to Merc or the performances of Kimi or Vettel's own performance relative to Kimi. Remember, Kimi was happy with the 2017 car unlike the 2014 one.
In many qualifyings, Vettel was 5 tenths, 6 tenths, 8 tenths ahead of Kimi, world champion Kimi to be exact. In Monaco 2017, Kimi got pole after Vettel made a mistake but Kimi couldn't pull away, Vettel sat behind for 32 laps, once Kimi pitted, Vettel overcut him and immediately put 10 seconds between him and Kimi, such was his confidence with the car.
Poles in Singapore and Mexico were delivered with inferior car, SF70H was never fastest the whole weekend and Kimi wasn't anywhere in Q3 as well but Seb found pace and on both occasions denied Verstappen on what people believed was a guaranteed pole considering Red Bull pace the whole weekend.
For tyres to work optimally, they must be in the perfect window, mapping, strategies, aero - if everything works as it should, the results are good. Same goes for drivers, they can drive around anything but if they are in their absolute window, they reach new levels. That was the case with Seb in 2017, he was one with the car and that resulted in extraordinary performances.
Bookmarks