#SPORTS | Sebastian Vettel: First steps, final laps
by Justice Abdon and Kurt Nuqui
It’s lights out in Abu Dhabi. Millions from all over are tuned in to witness the final laps of a driver who, in his fifteen years in Formula 1, blazed past adoring crowds with the planet’s fastest cars and pushed for positivity and change in an exclusive sport and beyond.
His name?
Sebastian Vettel.
He turned mediocre cars into legitimate threats and produced entire highlight reels with his driving, but these victories and flashy displays are ultimately trumped by his advocacies. All of these feats earned him a rightful place in F1’s hall of fame.
A prodigy is honed
Legends always start somewhere, and like F1 predecessors Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, Vettel’s was somewhere in a kart.
Karts are bare-bones racing vehicles: four wheels attached to metal tubes and powered by a tiny engine compared to F1. Vettel began driving these at three, and was competing by the time he was eight — dominating the national and international karting scene.
In 2003, Vettel moved to open-wheel cars: single-seater racing vehicles with exposed wheels. By his second season in the Formula BMW ADAC championship, he was utterly dominant, winning 18 out of the 20 races at just 17 years old.
This marked the beginning of his racing journey.
Less than four years later, he debuted in the pinnacle of motorsport: Formula 1. Taking Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber seat in the 2007 United States Grand Prix, Vettel dazzled spectators with his speed. He broke the youngest points-scorer record, qualifying seventh out of the 22 cars and finishing Sunday’s race at eighth.
He gained a full-time seat with Red Bull’s junior team, Toro Rosso, in July of that year, but waited until the 2008 Italian Grand Prix for his maiden win. It was on that rainy afternoon in Monza, Italy, where he broke the youngest race winner record and held it until 2016.
One for the history books
In 2009, Vettel made his move to Red Bull Racing, securing him a championship-contending car. In 2010, he vied for the World Drivers’ Championship alongside teammate Mark Webber, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, and McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
The four drivers traded victories throughout the season, building suspense to the finale as all rivals had a shot at the title. To be crowned champion, Vettel needed standings leader Alonso to finish below fifth — a tough ask for a man in a Ferrari.
Vettel cruised to the race win, but anything could happen in a race. Hamilton and his teammate Jenson Button crossed the finish line to take second and third, and Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes finished close behind them. Robert Kubica in the Renault, trailing Rosberg, took the checkered flag and fifth place.
“Sebastian Vettel, you are the world champion! The world champion!”
Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner immortalized this championship run with these words. At 23 years and 133 days old, Sebastian Vettel became the youngest World Drivers’ Championship in the history of Formula 1 — an honor he holds to this day.
If anyone ever doubted that he was a worthy champion, those doubts were quashed in the three years that followed. He racked up three more drivers’ and constructors’ championships and 29 wins in his time in Red Bull — with those last nine being consecutive victories.
However, after his 2013 dominance, Vettel’s hopes for a fifth title in 2014 were dashed by car and team issues coupled with poor performances. Red Bull failed to integrate the new hybrid engine into their car, and Vettel couldn’t perform to the standards he set.
Defiant stands
When he found the opportunity for a fifth championship with Ferrari, he promptly took it. After all, Ferrari was the team to drive for — in Vettel’s own words, “everyone is a Ferrari fan” — and it was also with this team that Vettel’s childhood idol Michael Schumacher won his five consecutive World Drivers’ titles.
However, despite every victory making him the darling of every Ferrari fan, he fell short of bagging a fifth world title. His championship runs for the next three years against Hamilton in the Mercedes followed the same pattern: a tightly-knit scrap at the first two-thirds of the season, and his rival running away with the championship by the end of it.
His stint at Ferrari reached its nadir in 2020, where an abundance of bad decisions placed Vettel 13th in the Drivers’ standings. In that season, Ferrari finished sixth in the Constructors’ standings — its worst since 1980.
At that point, he had competed in 13 Formula 1 seasons and fought for six championships. For the 2021 season, he joined Aston Martin Racing. While they built a consistent midfield threat in 2020 under the Racing Point name, they were nowhere near the best on the grid.
Despite this, Vettel showed that he still had teeth.
In the 2021 season, he scored points in seven races, finishing second at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after championship rivals Lewis Hamilton, whose brakes locked up, and Max Verstappen, who suffered a blown tire, were unable to score any points. Vettel was not able to replicate his feats for the 2022 season, but his results still sat comfortably in the middle of the pack.
Human behind the helmet
Throughout Vettel’s F1 career, his championship battles with Hamilton gave him a rival and a friend. He and Hamilton may not always see eye-to-eye on track, but they share similar sentiments on pressing issues.
The pair continue to vocalize their support for the LGBTQ+ community and the Black Lives Matter movement; where Hamilton zigged, Vettel also zigged. The two often sported pride symbols — either on their helmets or their clothing — when they raced in particularly unaccepting countries.
Apart from Hamilton, Mick Schumacher joined the grid for the 2021 season. Vettel adored Mick’s father Michael, who had no doubt inspired countless other Germans to enter the world of motorsport. Thus, when Schumacher joined the Haas F1 team, Vettel knew that he had a mission: to mentor the young driver.
As Mick himself said, “I think what my dad was to Sebastian, he is for me: someone that I’m close to, with whom I can talk about motorsport.”
Vettel did not stop with his activism after leaving Ferrari. In Austria, before the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix, he chose to help build the local bees a home, working with local school children to partake in his Bee Hotel project.
He also voiced his support for the #Race4Women initiative during the 2021 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, hosting a karting event for female racers in a country where women were only allowed to drive as recently as 2017.
Seb will always be a legend
Yes, Vettel gave no quarter when he was behind the wheel. For purist fans of the sport, this is what he’ll be remembered for: his miracles with Toro Rosso, his dominance with Red Bull, his defiant stands with Ferrari, and his final hurrahs with Aston Martin.
However, when we focus too much on the statistics, victories, and records set, we miss the bigger picture. What Vettel has done to the world has far transcended the world of Formula 1. Beyond his ability to befriend his championship rivals and mentor Michael Schumacher’s spawn, his will to stand up for what he believes in has been astounding to watch.
His feats have spread from commanding leads and dominating seasons to outside the bounds of Formula 1. He strived to make a difference in his latter years, and through his initiatives and interactions in and out of F1, one could say he has long surpassed success.
“It’s great to see that we have the power to inspire you with what we do and what we say, so I think there [are] far bigger and far more important things than racing in circles.”
– Sebastian Vettel, Formula 1 driver, four-time WDC
Danke, Seb.
Special thanks to Stephen Chua of Batch 2024 for helping with the summary of Vettel’s career.
