Sebastian Vettel Had F1's Greatest Peak Ever
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Sebastian Vettel was never supposed to be Red Bull's star. The team that had already purchased a second Formula 1 team to develop talent had put its now-famous driver development system into place years prior, building a massive pool of talent that did not include then-BMW Sauber prospect Sebastian Vettel. That changed when Vettel turned heads as a test driver for a team with no room to hire him in 2007, leading two practice sessions in weekends where he did not actually race. When he scored points in his debut as an injury replacement for Robert Kubica at the 2007 United States Grand Prix, Red Bull saw their future. In his legendary 2010 to 2013 peak, Vettel showed that it was the best decision the company has ever made.
Vettel joined Red Bull's Scuderia Toro Rosso in the final stages of the 2007 season, but he scored points just once in 12 races behind the wheel of their STR2 in 2007 and 2008. That finish, a stunning fourth from 12th on the grid in China, seemed like an outlier at the time. It would not be an outlier once STR debuted their Adrian Newey-penned STR3 six races into the 2008 season.
Red Bull's new prized prospect went on a tear in the STR3, scoring points in nine of 13 races. While his four-time-and-reigning ChampCar champion teammate Sebastien Bourdais scored points just once in the same stretch, Vettel took the team's first ever pole in the rain at the Monza track where he had set the fastest lap in practice sessions as a testing-only driver two years earlier. A day later, he bettered the feat by outrunning Heikki Kovalainen on a wet track to take his first career win, the first of just two wins ever for the team now known as AlphaTauri, and the first ever win for Red Bull's ambitious two-team Formula 1 operation. It made Vettel the youngest winner ever, a record that stood until Max Verstappen's win in his first race with Red Bull.
When Vettel accepted his expected promotion to the Red Bull senior team in 2009, the program had never won a pole or a race. Vettel changed both in China, three races into the season. He would add three more of each that year, enough to get himself to second in the driver's championship and combine with Mark Webber to take Red Bull to second in the constructor's championship.
Championship contention came in 2010, but a strong year by Webber and Fernando Alonso's best year at Ferrari left Vettel third in a four-man race for the title going into the Abu Dhabi season finale. Vettel won from pole while Alonso and Webber struggled to seventh and eighth respectively, making him the youngest world champion ever. Unlike his race win record, Vettel still holds that distinction over Max Verstappen.
What followed was the greatest peak in the history of Formula 1, one shared between Vettel and designer Adrian Newey. Over the next three years, Vettel would win 29 of a possible 58 races and 30 of a possible 58 poles. Despite a well-recorded internal rivalry with teammate Mark Webber, Vettel won 13 of 19 races in 2013 season and a shocking 15 of 19 poles in the 2011 season. Both are all-time records, as are the nine straight wins to close the 2019 season. Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher have him beat in longevity, sure, but nobody has ever had a stretch like Vettel did in Adrian Newey's Red Bulls.
Critics will point to his record when not in the best car, but the reality of Formula 1 is that the best driver and the best car come together fairly often and for fairly obvious reasons. Every great driver in the history of the series series has had a shot in that situation, but only Vettel was so dominant against so many other all-time greats. Michael Schumacher's 13-win season came on a grid with only four other combined world championships; Vettel won 13 in a season where the rest of the grid combined for five before factoring in Lewis Hamilton's seven. Only Jim Clark's 1963 through 1965 runs come close to Vettel's peaks in percentages of wins and poles, but the two-time champion Clark did it in a season half as long in cars completely unrecognizable from a modern open wheeler.
Vettel's peak was, unfortunately, much shorter than anticipated. He struggled in the first year of the V-6 hybrid era, finishing behind a teammate for the first time ever in his lone season against Daniel Ricciardo. His run at Ferrari from 2015 to 2019 was as strong as could be expected on a grid where Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes had replaced him as the grid's clear best driver/best team combo, but Ferrari in that era never ascended back to the level of a true contender and he never came close to making Hamilton or Nico Rosberg sweat in the championship fight. When Vettel was dropped by Ferrari at the beginning of the delayed 2020 season, it left him as a driver with nothing to fight for in what would prove to be his last season at a major team.
Two years at Aston Martin have been no better. He's outperformed teammate Lance Stroll comfortably, but he has been unable to push what has been a struggling car up the grid with any consistency and has not fought for a win. Only a miraculous turnaround could get him a chance to gain ground in the all-time wins and poles standings.
Instead, his years at Aston Martin will be remembered for how he used his voice. Vettel has become a vocal champion against both climate change and racism, two things long ignored by an F1 that for so long has chosen to turn a blind eye to the flaws its own culture. It was a surprising turn for a driver that was once seen as arrogant and aloof by fans. The driver once seen as a series villain has become the fan favorite that cleans up after fans.
He's also become a public mentor to Mick Schumacher, son of his hero-turned-competitor Michael Schumacher. As he steps out of the car, the younger Schumacher told Road & Track that Vettel's retirement could actually open the door for the fast friends to spend even more time together.
Whatever Vettel chooses to do next, his legacy in Formula 1 is secure. His 57 poles, 53 wins, and four world driver's championships put him fourth, third, and fourth all time respectively. His records for consecutive wins, poles in a season, and as youngest-ever champion still stand. At his peak, he was the greatest driver in the sport by such a wide margin that Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton could not keep up. He is, unquestionably, one of the greatest talents in Formula 1 history.
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