The German driver was born on 3rd July 1987. Since then he has always been involved in the world of racing. Sebastian Vettel went on to achieve great things in the sport and is regarded as one of the greatest of all time. Recently he joined social media to announce his retirement by the end of the F1 calendar this year.
The Start of His Formula 1 Career
Sebastian Vettel became the third driver to drive for BMW Sauber in the 2006 season at the Turkish Grand Prix. On his debut, he set the fastest lap time during the second Friday practice also known as FP2. He also went on to become the then youngest ever Formula 1 driver to compete in a Grand Prix weekend. He went on to practice a few other times for the team before having his first proper race in the USA. The debutant managed to break another record by becoming the youngest driver to record a point in Formula One.
It was then announced that Sebastian Vettel will be driving for Toro Rosso for the remainder of the 2007 season after the race in Hungaroring. It was there that we saw the nerves starting to kick in. He struggled to get up to pace with the other drivers and also he was unable to finish races consistently. In 2008, on a wet track at Monza Vettel managed to break another record and win the race as he led for the majority of the time. It was only a start though.
Red Bull Dominance
At the start of the 2009 season. News broke out that the promising driver from Germany has taken over the vacant seat left by David Coulthard. He was very promising in his first few races and started to find the consistency needed to become a top driver. He managed to finish second in the World Drivers Championship behind Jenson Button. This set the course for years to come.
The dominance of Vettel started when he managed to win in Malaysia. After that results kept arriving and Red Bull were extremely happy with the results they were getting. Being able to get 1-2 finishes with co-driver Mark Webber was seen as a frightening duo. That led to them winning their first ever Constructors Championship in their history. The final race in Abu Dhabi saw a three-horse tie to win the driver’s Championship. The German driver came out victorious to win his first WDC and also be the youngest to do so.
Successful title defences were to follow. In 2011 was pure domination from the driver as he was once again on a title charge and managed to win it again. He managed to break another record for most poles in one season of F1 during the 2012 season achieving a tally of 15 poles. 2013 was another victory but saw some issues forming between teammates Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. The infamous multi-21 is known all over the world. 2014 was the last of his championships ending a 4-year streak.
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The Decline of Sebastian Vettel
After winning four WDC. Seb went to the most prestigious team of all Ferrari. There he looked to continue to dominate but was rather unsuccessful. Some years were quite threatening to Mercedes but it never had a spark. The early years saw some ups and downs and showed potential that they could win it all. 2018 was a very good season but yet again it was not quite enough. A couple of years were rather disappointing as Ferrari dropped significantly in performance.
Then 2021 saw the real decline of the German. Suffering from a big change in a car’s ingenuity. It was easy to see that there was a real struggle shifting to a mid-table team. 2022 was off to a slow start and initially, Seb had covid, to begin with. Now in mid-season, it was announced that he will be retiring after the end of the year.
Legacy
There is no doubt that this is one of the best resumes a driver has had up till now and it just speaks for itself. It includes:
- 4 World Drivers Championships
- 53 Race Wins
- 122 Podium Finishes
- 57 Pole Positions
- 3076 Career Points ( Up Till French Grand Prix)
- 38 Fastest Laps
As he will take the final right-hand turn at Abu Dhabi it will be the end of one of the greatest careers of all time.
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