The Red Bull driver drove a fast and flawless race, starting on the pole, getting a great restart after a first-lap safety car bunched up the field, and finishing ten seconds ahead of second-placed Lewis Hamilton.
The young German was in tears after winning, both on his car radio and on the podium. After being touted as the fastest driver in the field for his wins, and maligned as too immature after he wrecked himself and his teammate while leading at Turkey, Vettel came back to prove that he did indeed deserve the title.
The young champion struggled for composure at the start of the post race interview on SPEED TV, his face still damp from tears of joy and relief. “What you are supposed to say at this moment?”
“We kept believing in our team and the car, and I kept believing in myself. I knew that the only thing I could do was to try to win this race and do my best.
Vettel had no idea where his rivals were running; until Alonso crossed the finish line, Vettel didn’t know who had won the WDC. He had deliberately avoided looking at the scoring screens to avoid distraction.
“Crossing the line [engineer Guillaume Rocquelin] came on the radio very quietly and said, ‘It’s looking good, we have to wait until the cars finish’, and I was thinking, ‘What does he mean?’ Then he comes on the radio and screams at me that we have won the world championship.”
F1’s Closest Points Race Ever
Vettel won the most competitive Formula One Drivers’ Championship fight in history; for the first time ever, four drivers were in the hunt for the championship going into the last race.
“Some people gotten written off this championship very early then they came back,” Vettel said. “At the beginning you thought, ‘Okay, Ferrari’s dropping back.’ They fought back very hard. McLaren came back—Lewis [Hamilton] was leading the championship.
“All of us we had to go through ups and downs. It has been extremely intense—a tough season mentally.” Vettel said the hardest part was “to be able to ignore what people are saying and try to get your own thing done.”
Vettel, who had never topped the points all season, needed to win the race, but also needed Fernando Alonso to finish no better than fifth.
The McLaren driver couldn’t force his way by Kubica, allowing Vettel to open a huge gap and run unchallenged. Hamilton had the speed to contest the lead, but couldn’t get past Kubica.
“Obviously it helped that Lewis got out behind Kubica and got held, so I could make a gap,” Vettel admitted.
More important, with Alonso held up by Petrov, Kubica opened enough of a gap to pit and rejoin ahead of Alonso, pushing the Ferrari driver further down in the points.
Vettel won the title by a mere four points over Alonso.
Vettel was the fastest driver in the fastest car through most of the season, driving the Red Bull RB-6 to ten pole positions along with his five wins. Vettel and his teammate Mark Webber also won the World Constructors’ Championship for Red Bull.
A String of ‘Youngest’ Records
Sebastian Vettel has a string of “Youngest Driver” records to his name.
In 2006 he became the youngest driver to participate in an F1 event, driving in practice at the Turkish Grand Prix.
In 2007 and 2008 Vettel drove for the Red Bull junior team, Toro Rosso. He became the youngest driver start a race after regular driver Robert Kubica crashed while practicing for the 2007 U.S. Grand Prix, and also the youngest driver to score points, finishing seventh in that race.
Later that year he became the youngest driver to lead at lap, at the Japanese Grand Prix. In 2008 he became the youngest to score a pole, finish on the podium, and finish first as he won the Italian Grand Prix.
Vettel’s performance for Toro Rosso in 2008 earned him a spot on the Red Bull team in 2009. Red Bull was overmatched by the Brawn GP team, but Vettel still managed to finish second in the points, winning four races.
This year Vettel came out fast, scoring poles in three of the first four races and winning one. Only mechanical failure kept him off the top step of the podium at Australia. He and Mark Webber dominated the middle of the season, but Vettel’s error at Turkey—he crashed into Webber while the pair were running 1–2, when the younger could have simply waited half a lap and passed his teammate in a safe location—called into question Vettel’s maturity. Did he have the depth of character to match his talent?
Webber went on to win two more races, for a total of four, while Vettel languished. Ferrari got their F10 chassis working, allowing Alonso to take the points lead.
Vettel regained his form in the final four races, winning three of them. Had his engine not blown at Korea, he would have won there too.
Despite his youth and his critics, Vettel certainly proved that he deserved the WDC. He had the best car in the field—not the fastest in a straight line, but the best-handling by far—and he made full use of it. While McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton—the previous youngest WDC—crashed foolishly at Italy and Singapore, throwing away his points lead, Vettel settled down and focused on the crown.
