Well I'm sorry but you logic is in my view badly flawed.
1) You are defending Vettel but saying its a team sport and its the team that wins not Vettel and even if he is the worst driver that RedBull is a deserving winner. Doesn't really strengthen your support of this particular driver now does it?
2) The Usain Bolt anology is a very poor one as in Sprinting like swimming it is PURELY the athletes performance. No engine, chassis, wind tunnel, engineeers in the pits. No Team behind him as you so well argue that creates the peformance on the day-Just him. So Usain Bolts performance is entirely down to his intrinsic athletic ability. No one can say he didnt deserve to win as it was just him.
An F1 drivers performance relys heavily on things outside his control. Otherwise Hulkenberg for example would podium most weeks.
So you freely use the word objective, when Vettel wins something he deserves it and its objective. When he is beaten as he was in 2014 it (19 races), objectively outraced and outpointed over a whole season by a comparative rookie somehow doesn't count due to external factors, his mood, his wife, his motivation, car doesnt suit him as much etc.
You appear to fail to see or understand the importance of the favourable treatment Vettel always got in RedBull.
For example in Silverstone he broke his brand new front wing. One of two they had there. Solution, they took the one from Webbers car and put it on Vettels. This was the weekend of the "not bad for a #2 driver" comment after Webber won.
Next example. In Turkey in 2010 when Vettel made a foolish attempt at a pass on Webber and a colision resulted (the one where he made the Cuckoo twirly finger sign), Horner embarrased himself by some waffle about "Seb had a slightly better fuel margin"
Next eaxample: Multimap 21. Vettel ignores team orders after Webber had managed to be ahead of him on track in the final stint in Sepang 2014 after a good tyre call early in the race.
My point you ask. Vettel gets the best treatment, the best equipment, the best support in RedBull. Ricciardo arrives, knows almost no one, has no special treatment, new to the car and beats him.
Not one race, beats him over the whole season. Out races him over a whole season, out drives him. In China Vettel again ignored team orders "tough luck" was what he said when Red Bull asked him to let Daniel through. 2 laps later Daniel passed him anyway. Monza he bluffed him and got a pass.
Vettels entrenched position in the team, technically, politically, financially in my view was probably worth 30-50 points to him. Daniel beat him anyway.
Considering all the foregoing it was a more resounding thrashing than the points table indicates.
In F1 it is often said the first person you have to beat is your team mate.
In 2014 Ricciardo proved he was faster. Objectively, subjectively it was by an even greater margin.
Hows that for logic and objectivity?
It's going to be a long year for you David, if you think Vettel is not heads and shoulders above 95% of the F1 crop. I don't care *what* kind of car you drive in F1 -- winning the WDC 4x in a team everyone mocked when they entered F1 is no easy task and Ricciardo having a "good year" against a frustrated Vettel, in the team that Vettel built (Newey's not looking like a genius these days, eh?) does not a hero make. The same can be said for Kimi vs. Alonso. Can any of the Kimi haters now pretend that he is inferior to Alonso, using least year's "stats" (which are meaningless when trying to prove an argument, thus, not admitted, in most court Court cases) since Alonso will likely score no points this year and (but for some bad fortune) Kimi would be 2nd or 3rd in the WDC this year after two races?
But that''s not why I defend Vettel. He brings "life" to a team, instead of dragging it down and demanding that they cater to him. He is genuinely not "out to get" his teammate, even though he can, and usually does. He's just "out to get" the stupid "team order" concept that only infests F1. If Massa had the whole ".....is faster than you" scenario to play over he'd (....wait...he did...last year. Huh? Wonder how that worked out for him?) have taken a dramatic turn in confidence. I feel as sorry for him as I do Button...a great driver and nice guy languishing behind Mr. Almighty for the rest of his days. When you scratch Alonso, you get a prima donna.
The sad fact is, F1 is a very poor measure of a drivers' ability for several reasons -- too many to go into but I think we all know what they are. Even team to team comparisons are subject to intense doubt. For instance, Massa is a prime example of getting the short stick, and has said so on many occasions. You cite Webber as another example, yet reverse course when comparing Red Bull's divers last year. Where is Ricciardo now? Fact is, last year was probably the *worst* year to make driver comparisons considering what a hack job the FIA did on the sport. Ferrari is revitalized, but it *can't* be because Fernando left...no...never...that's sacrilege. Well, I think it is, at least partly...and said so long before the season started. The other part is because Ferrari have a much more focused, less selfish, more talented, and better character than Alonso named Vettel, that for the life of me, I can't figure out why such visceral criticism is generated against him.
The part of the press conference that stuck me most about Vettel was not the part where he ripped Nico a new ass*ole, but the part where he talked about wishing that Kimi was right up there with him and that, but for some bad luck, he would be. And you could tell it was genuine. Then, Nico gave this look of incredulity. Right there, most accurate judges of human character knew who the better man was. I have no love for Hamilton, but dealing with Mr. Rosberg, who did absolutely nothing (and was even outraced by Schumacher on many occasions) before another silver platter was handed to him (as had been done his whole life) must be a nightmare.
So who was the best driver this past weekend? Juan Pablo Montoya...at 39. In the same heat and humidity, without power steering, on a bumpy concrete bordered street course, in a car that is getting much closer to F1 speed without the F1 cost. Drivers like him and Kimi drive because they love driving. Drivers like Alonso and Rosberg drive because they love the fame, adulation, and money.