So this is the first part of our brand new series called “The road to F1”. At first we wanted to start with another driver, but according to situation from past few days we decided, that the first driver who we are going to talk about in this series is Sebastian Vettel.
SEBASTIAN VETTEL
At first, we will start with actions from past days. Loyal fans of F1 for sure noticed, that Sebastian Vettel won’t continue with Ferrari in 2021. Both sides haven’t agreed on extending their cooperation. This message shocked whole world of motorsport. On the other side, this step was expected especially after calling Ferrari’s deal as a joke by the German driver. His current employer offered him a one year contract with 12 mil.€ sallary, what would be almost about 30 mil. less than his current salary. Another factor which definitelly didn’t help Sebastian was engagement of Charles Leclerc. We will talk about that in the end of this article.
CAREER BEGINNING
As every professional driver, Sebastian Vettel started his carrier with karts too. In 8 years he won The german junior championship, Monaco’s cup and European junior championship. In year 2003 he ended on the second place in Formula BMW series. One year later he won and his reward was transfer to european F3. In the first year has Vettel fought 6 podiums and overall, he was fifth in the end of season. Next to it he has driven also in series Masters of Formula 3, in spanish F3 and in the race in Macau, where he ended third. But that’s not everything. In the same year he became test driver of team F1 BMW Sauber. In year 2006 he was second in series of european F3 and moved on to series F3.5 Renault. In year 2007 he ended fifth.
THE CHANCE IN BMW
In year 2007 his dream about driving F1 came true. During GP of Monaco Robert Kubica injured, so BMW had to replace him for GP of USA. Decision fell on Sebastian and he used his chance brilliantly. In the race he ended on the eighth place and he became the youngest driver in history, who earned points. Even though he had to give the seat back to Kubica, who recovered from his injurence.
THE PHASE IN TORO ROSSO
“B” of Red Bull, Toro Rosso was searching for replacement of flat Scott Speed. Instead of him they decided for Sebastian Vettel. And they did good. In year 2007 he earned points just once, but markedly. In GP of China he took up great fourth place. So F1 had new star on the grid. It was confirmed in year 2008. The results of german driver were pretty impressive, but he made big shock in italian Monza. In the qualifying he earned pole postion and he kept his lead in race too. Thanks to this succes he secured his place in the main team of Red Bull.
THE GOLDEN ERA IN RED BULL
The teamamte of Sebastian Vettel was in Red Bull experienced driver Mark Webber. It was questionable, how will this duo do and if will they reach higher places. They did, probably higher than they expected. Austrian team was a candidate for win in constructors championship and rookie in the team, Vettel for earning world championship title. Unfortunately for this duo, team Brawn had faster car and they earned both titles. But Sebastian was second and he confirmed his talent. But year 2010 brought a twist. Brawn appeared in financial problems and in next season continued as Mercedes. Even though season didn’t star for Sebastian Vettel the best. In Bahrain technical issue cost him a victory and in Australia he retired after driving mistake. However, he was gradually getting back up, but after GP of Singapore he was loosing decades of points on championship’s leader Alonso. In the end of the season he had brilliant condition and after the last race everyone could call him as the youngest master of world in F1’s history. The next year he was almost unbeatable. He won 12 of 19 GP’s and we didn’t see him on podium only twice. In the end of the season his lead before second Button was more that 100 points. In the next year it wasn’t so easy for two times world champion. In the first half of season he achieved only one victory, but after summer brake he won four times. For the title he fought as same as in 2010, with Alonso. The drama ended in the last race in Brasil and it was really hard fight. After start Sebastian Vettel got in colision and dropped down at last place. In the ended he got to sixth place, which was enough for achieving third title. Season in 2013 was same as in year 2011, but more dominant. In the first half of season, first drivers were fighting for points, but in the second half he totally destroyed his rivals and achieved 9 wins in a row. So he earned the fourth world championship title and he got to third place in the table of numbers of wins. The 2014 wasn’t for Sebastian Vettel so succesful. Consequence of new rules was, that Mercedes got into lead almost every race. Four times master of world didn’t even earn a victory and he was also beaten by his team colleague Daniel Ricciardo, who earned three wins. He was also failed few times by his car. This means, that year 2014 was his last year in Red Bull. Subsequently he decided to sign a contract with Ferrari and to replace Alonso.
NEW CHAPTER WITH FERRARI Since 2015 Sebastian Vettel has been active on the Apennine peninsula. After unsuccessful 2014 season the German driver wanted to restart his career. It was question whether this season will be successful because Ferrari finished fourth in last season. However, Vettel started to the season superbly and he scored his first win in red colours. Ferrari came back on top after almost two years. He also has great results in next races. He usually beat his team mate Kimi Räikkonen and scored next two wins and one pole position in 2015. It was P3 in championship standings. In 2016 it was expected that Ferrari will fight for first place with Mercedes, but that’s not happen. Italian team was overtaken by Red Bull and Vettel with Räikkonen had no chance to score podiums. However, Ferrari was in 2017 on the same level as Mercedes. There was hope that the title would come to Maranello after 10 years. But in the second half of season came lot of problems and Ferrari lost championship. The 2018 year was similar, but here Ferrari lost championship by Sebastian Vettel’s mistakes. After that moment German driver was criticized. And here we comes back to what we talked about at the beginning of the article. Charles Leclerc’s arrival put Vettel under big media pressure, which led to mistakes. He had better results in the second half of the season but still there were something what played against him. For example, some mechanical failure or team order in Russia. At the end of 2019 season Ferrari signed contract with Charles Leclerc until 2024. It was clear that Monaco driver became a team priority. If Vettel extended the contract he became number two. He doesn’t want it so he is leaving Ferrari. There are lot of questions about his future. He has chance only in Renault or Mercedes. However, lot of people are talking he will retire.
SEBASTIAN VETTEL – STATS
Date of birth: 3.7.1987, Germany (Heppenheim)
Grand Prix entered: 241
Podiums: 120
Wins: 53
Pole positions: 57
Titles: 4
Straight for F1 