Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel (born July 3, 1987, Heppenheim, West Germany [now in Germany]) is a German race-car driver who in 2010, at age 23, became the youngest person to win the Formula One (F1) world drivers’ championship. He also captured the title in 2011, 2012, and 2013. He retired from F1 in 2022.

Karting and early open-wheel success

Vettel grew up idolizing German racing icon Michael Schumacher, and he took up karting in 1995. He proved to have great talent and soon drew the attention of Gerhard Noack, a track owner who had shepherded Schumacher through his own youth-karting career. Noack’s support (as well as that of Red Bull Racing, which sponsored Vettel’s karting career from age 12) helped Vettel win numerous karting titles before he switched to open-wheel racing in 2003.

Vettel finished second in the overall standings in his first season of driving in the junior Formula BMW series and won the series championship handily in 2004, posting 18 victories in his 20 races. He subsequently moved to the Formula Three Euro Series (placing second in 2006) and the World Series by Renault.

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F1 debut and first championship

Vettel made his Formula One race debut in 2007 with the BMW Sauber team after having served as an F1 test driver for two seasons. Despite his developing reputation as a racing prodigy, Vettel was not an immediate success on the F1 circuit: he finished no higher than fourth in his first 21 races. His first win came with Toro Rosso at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, which made Vettel, at age 21 years and 2 months, the youngest F1 race winner ever. The impressive circumstances of that victory—on a rain-soaked track, with an inferior race car—led Red Bull to bring him on as a driver for the 2009 season.

Vettel won four races and finished second in the world drivers’ championship standings in his first season with Red Bull. In 2010 he was victorious in five races, including the Brazilian Grand Prix, the penultimate race in the F1 season, which gave Red Bull its first manufacturers’ championship, and the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which secured the drivers’ championship for Vettel. In capturing the 2010 title, he became the youngest person to win the F1 drivers’ championship and the third driver in F1 history to win the drivers’ championship despite never being atop the championship standings until the final race of the season.

Dominance at Red Bull

Vettel followed his surprising 2010 title by dominating the 2011 F1 season. He clinched his second drivers’ championship two months before the end of the season. All told, Vettel won 11 of the 19 races of the 2011 season. Although less commanding in 2012, he nevertheless won five races to capture his third consecutive drivers’ championship. Vettel’s performance enabled Red Bull to win its second manufacturers’ title in 2011 and its third in 2012.

In 2013 Vettel again ran roughshod over the F1 field, winning 10 of the first 16 series races to clinch his fourth consecutive title with a month remaining in the season. That year he also became the first driver in F1 history to win eight consecutive races in a season, a record he extended to nine straight wins by the end of the year. Vettel’s streak of drivers’ championships ended with a fifth-place finish in 2014. Late in that season he announced that he was leaving the Red Bull team and joining Ferrari, beginning with the 2015 season.

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Ferrari, Aston Martin, and retirement from F1

Vettel began his Ferrari career with two solid seasons that did not reach his previous heights, finishing in third place in 2015 and fourth in 2016. His 2017 season began with a strong start as he won three of the first six races. However, he managed only two more victories, and he ended the year in second place, behind Lewis Hamilton. Vettel had similar results in 2018, winning five races and finishing the season as runner-up to Hamilton.

Vettel struggled over the next two seasons, winning only one race in 2019 and none in 2020. At the end of the 2020 season, he and Ferrari parted ways, and in 2021 he signed with Aston Martin. Despite having one of the strongest engines in F1, Aston Martin finished in the bottom half of the constructors’ standings in 2021 and 2022. Vettel’s results during that time reflected the team’s lackluster performance: he had no wins and only one podium, and he finished 12th in the drivers’ championship in both years.

In the middle of the 2022 season, Vettel announced that he would be retiring from F1 at season’s end. He cited his wish to spend more time with his family and on other interests outside F1. He also pointed, among other factors, to his concerns for the environment, as he told Motorsport.com soon after his announcement:

…seeing the world changing and seeing the future, in a very threatened position for all of us, and especially for generations to come—I understand that part of my passion, my job is coming with things that I’m not a fan of, obviously, travelling the world, racing cars, burning resources, literally.

I think once you see these things, and once you’re aware, then I don’t think you can really unsee. It’s not the main factor. Like I said, it is a combination of many things, but it is also part of the driver behind the decision.

Vettel remained in F1’s orbit after his retirement. He appeared at the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix and built structures for insects in support of a biodiversity project, and he has advocated for F1’s use of carbon-neutral fuels.