'Vettel breathes new life into F1' declare Monday's papers

Sebastian Vettel

What a difference two years make – after four successive titles, Sebastian Vettel was said to be making F1 boring. Yet after Sunday’s victory The Sundeclared that ‘Seb can save F1’.

The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph both had similar headlines stating that Vettel’s win ‘breathes new life into F1 season’.

‘The index finger wagged, just like old time,’ wrote The Daily Telegraph’sDaniel Johnson. ‘Yet a celebration which once symbolised Sebastian Vettel’s dreary domination of Formula 1 now felt like a welcome signal that fears of a predictable, doom-laden season had been emphatically allayed’.

The Times' Kevin Eason added that ‘millions of Formula 1 fans are suddenly savouring the promise of a thrilling season’.

His thoughts were echoed in the Daily Mail by Jonathan McEvoy: ‘Hamilton’s Mercedes team had threatened to dominate this season but to the great relief of Formula 1 fans throughout the world — including some patriotic Hamilton supporters — they have been caught up.'

In The Times, Eason continued: ‘This was the first time in nine races that any car other than a Mercedes had won. Many feared that no car but a Mercedes could win this season after Hamilton’s domination in Australia to add to the world championship he won last year, but the Briton was forced to settle for second place on a frustrating day that left him fractious and ultimately disappointed.'

Peter Bonnington felt the wrath of Lewis Hamilton

The fractious behaviour Eason alludes to was clear for the world to hear via the team radio with The Sun’s Ben Hunt declaring that ‘Lewis Hamilton went radio gaga at his Mercedes team’.

In the Daily Mail, McEvoy added Hamilton was ‘involved in a series of curt radio exchanges’ with ‘his obviously jittery engineers’ as he questioned Mercedes’ strategy decisions.

The Independent also picked up on the radio messages with David Tremayne writing: ‘Hamilton had an angry exchange with his team over the radio when they started talking to him while he was cornering and again when they fitted another set of hard tyres for his final stint when he had wanted mediums. But the fact was he had used up all of those.'

A round up of the best rants, instructions and celebrations heard over the team radio during the Malaysia Grand Prix.

After once again being beaten by his Mercedes team-mate in Malaysia, The Guardian’s Paul Weaver declared that Nico Rosberg is now the supporting act to Hamilton.

‘Most wise judges had already awarded the 2015 season to the hitherto dominant Mercedes team and the drivers’ title to the sensational Lewis Hamilton, who frankly has his team-mate Nico Rosberg in his zipped pocket,” he wrote. ‘That assessment is still likely to be borne out.’