The Career of Sebastian Vettel

Last week one of the greatest of all time announced his retirement. Let's look back on his career.

Sebastian Vettel is undoubtedly one of the best Formula 1 drivers in history. A four-time world champion with 53 Grand Prix wins to his name (third most all-time). Holding records for the most wins in one formula 1 season with 13, having a stretch of 9 consecutive wins in 2013 along with being the youngest world champion of all time. This past week he announced his retirement, so I couldn't think of a better time to look back on his career and the legacy he has left on the sport.

Early Signs

Vettel began his F1 career as the third driver for BMW Sauber at the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix, he became the then youngest driver to participate in a Grand Prix weekend at 19 years old. Getting a fine only nine seconds into his career for exceeding the pitlane speed limit on his way to the track, his second test session in Italy later that season saw better results with him setting the fastest time in both practice sessions. However, this was only a test session and Vettel would still have to wait almost another year before getting a chance to race in Formula 1. In 2007 following the crash of Kubica at the Canadian Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel made his debut in a F1 race finishing 8th becoming the youngest driver to score a point in F1.

Championship dominance and Rivalry with Mark Webber

In July 2007 BMW released him to join Red Bull's Toro Rosso (basically Red Bull's junior team) replacing Scott Speed mid-way through the season. During the Japanese Grand Prix Vettel had put in a brilliant performance from starting in 8th working his way up to 3rd looking to achieve the first podium of his career before crashing into Red Bull driver and future teammate Mark Webber under safety car conditions (where all drivers have to slow to their speed). Following the race Mark Webber referred to Vettel as a "kid with not enough experience". It is important to note that following the incident Vettel wasn't considered responsible as the incident may have been caused by Hamilton.

Vettel's first full season was a whirlwind, starting the season with 4 DNFs with 3 of them occurring in the first lap of the race, showing his lack of experience on the track. But despite one of the worst starts to a Formula 1 season in history. Vettel had a miraculous turn around in the second half of the season driving with speed and a natural feel for the F1 car. Vettel ended up finishing in 8th place in the drivers championship above his teammate at Toro Rosso and both Red Bull senior team drivers. He was able to get his first Grand Prix win at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix at 21 years old.

In 2009 Vettel got the call up, a retiring David Coulthard left a seat at Red Bull and who better then there junior prospect. This coincided perfecting with the creation of the RB5 car which was considered to be the first car Red Bull had that could win the championship. That year they put in a good effort but were unable to reach the mountain top, a second place finish for Vettel in the drivers championship losing out to Jenson Button by 11 points.

The following 4 seasons showed Sebastian at his best, consecutive championships with each of them showing better racing from Vettel. In 2010 Vettel won the championship by a mere 4 points compared to his final championship win in 2013 which is historic for being one of the biggest title land-slides in history with 9 wins in a row to end the season with a 155 point lead from second place. Famously after the race Vettel started doing doughnuts in the car and got on his hands and knees to bow to the RB9 car (as pictured above). This driver/car partnership is considered by many to be the best in history, it seemed as if Vettel and the RB9 were in sync at all times (almost as if it was made specifically for him and his style of driving). During this period of time Vettel and his teammate Mark Webber had a well documented rivalry. Mainly stemming from the fact that Red Bull is one of if not the only racing team to have a clear preference towards one of their drivers over the other. Vettel was the young prodigy with buckets of talent while Webber was the experienced established constant driver. Red Bull always have a strong push for young talent and clearly favored Vettel during his time with the team. Which was clear in the way they built the car to suit him, and telling Mark Webber to let Vettel pass him at many points in the season (although this is common practice in formula 1 for the driver higher in the standings). On the race track this would barely ever cause problems, but behind the scenes it was very heated and following Vettel's fourth world championship, Webber left the team.

Vettel's final year at Red Bull was a disaster, he struggled with reliability issues throughout the whole season and was out performed by his new, younger teammate in Daniel Riccardo. Following this season and knowing that Red Bull would slowly phase towards Riccardo, Vettel decided to leave the team.

Ferrari Title challenges

Joining Ferrari was a lifelong dream for Sebastian Vettel, one of the most decorated teams in Formula 1 history being home of the greatest ever F1 driver in Michael Schumacher. This seemed to be the right move at the time, Red Bull had taken a much younger driver line up with promoting the then 17 year old Max Verstappen to join the 25 year old Daniel Riccardo. While at Ferrari they had the former world champion Kimi Räikkönen with Vettel. A strong first season from which Vettel won 3 races and had constant podiums throughout the year showed that Ferrari had one of the best drivers on the grid. However Mercedes were better, Hamilton was a monster with an incredible car to match left no space for Vettel to compete.

What follows was 5 years of the same story, bar one year were Hamilton's teammate Nico Rosberg was able to claim the title over him. No other car could match Mercedes for pace and Vettel had to settle for being the best of the rest.

By 2019 Kimi Räikkönen had left Ferrari which left a seat open for the new young prodigy in Charles Leclerc and in a shocking season saw the 21 year old out point Vettel throughout the season. Leclerc looked like the new number one with now the experienced Vettel was struggling to compete. Ferrari decided that they would not renew Vettel's contract past the 2020 season with a new younger driver waiting in the wings to take his seat. 2020 was a sad farewell for Vettel with a disappointing car meaning Ferrari finished as the 6th team in the Constructor's Championship and Vettel being all the way down at 13th.

Aston Martin finale

Still a quality driver but no where near the best, Vettel went to an interesting team in Aston Martin. Lawrence Stroll is an incredibly wealthy man who was committed to building a car that could compete with the best in formula 1. However, his rushed methods and his bias driver choices (picking his son to drive for his team) gave Aston Martin little hope in the eyes of Vettel's fans. A better season from Vettel with good driving but a car that could not match his talents lead to another middling position in Formula 1.

Which takes us to now, Vettel has had another mediocre season in which it is clear that Aston Martin are still years off of creating a car good enough to compete with the best in Formula 1. And in a surprising move Vettel has decided to retire at just 35 years old.

He will undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest drivers on the grid with a natural gift for racing, he is also partly responsible for the new era of F1 in which new young drivers are getting big opportunities at the best teams in the sport. Following Vettel's success with Red Bull, the team pulled the trigger on a 17 year old prospect called Max Verstappen who has now gone on to become the face of F1. Without Vettel showing that age is just a number, Verstappen might of had to wait years to show his talents on the biggest stage. For all the great drives, exciting overtakes and drama we thank him.