Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Abu Dhabi, 2010

Sebastian Vettel becomes youngest ever F1 champion

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Abu Dhabi, 2010
Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Abu Dhabi, 2010

Sebastian Vettel has become the youngest driver ever to win the Formula 1 world championship.

At 23 years and 134 days old he has broken the record set by Lewis Hamilton in 2008, who won the title aged 23 years, 301 days.

This record has now been broken three times in the last six years – Fernando Alonso the first to break it in 2005.

F1 world champions by country

Vettel is only the second German driver to win the world championship, joining Michael Schumacher, who last won the world championship in 2004.

Country No. Drivers/s
1 Britain 14 Mike Hawthorn, Graham Hill (2), Jim Clark (2), John Surtees, Jackie Stewart (3), James Hunt, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button
2 Brazil 8 Emerson Fittipaldi (2), Nelson Piquet (3), Ayrton Senna (3)
2 Germany 8 Michael Schumacher (7), Sebastian Vettel
4 Argentina 5 Juan Manuel Fangio
5 Australia 4 Jack Brabham (3), Alan Jones
5 Austria 4 Jochen Rindt, Niki Lauda (3)
5 France 4 Alain Prost
5 Finland 4 Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen (2), Kimi R?â?ñikk?â?Ânen
9 Italy 3 Giuseppi Farina, Alberto Ascari (2)
10 United States 2 Phil Hill, Mario Andretti
10 Spain 2 Fernando Alonso
12 New Zealand 1 Denny Hulme
12 South Africa 1 Jody Scheckter
12 Canada 1 Jacques Villeneuve

2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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256 comments on “Sebastian Vettel becomes youngest ever F1 champion”

  1. Congratulations Sebastian Vettel
    He won the WDC outright. No team orders involved. The best man on the day won. Although I’m a Webber fan, and would’ve liked to have seen him take the title, there’s no denying that Sebastian completely deserves the title due to his absolute pace.

    1. Yep spot on. You cannot begrudge Vettel, so congratulations to him! :) Although Vettel was faultless in the last rounds of the championship – my worst fears were realised when the title decider became an anti-climax, as I felt was imminent with the last race at a bland circuit. Today, the Renaults acted as a real buzz-kill. I don’t mind who wins the championship so much, but I do mind when it isn’t as exciting as it could have been. Next year should be a few thousand times better considering it may be decided at a track where overtaking has been known to occur. In fact, Abu Dhabi was the buzz-kill.

      Nevertheless, well done Sebastian Vettel, everyone was focusing on Webber and Alonso and he came through to spoil it for them! :)

      1. Yep, agree with both of you. As I said yesterday, whoever wins the title deserves it, and Vettel showed why that’s the case today. The race wasn’t that exciting but young Seb was faultless. Good on him.

      2. I have to agree with you, Yas Marina is beautiful but unfortunately not much overtaking can be done there, it would have been much more sensational in Brazil for instance.

        1. So swap the results of Brazil and Abu Dhabi, if you’re not happy. Vettel still be champion. ;)

        2. Its also a bit crap winning the championship where they’re not allowed champagne!

          1. I know because after all what’s a party with out some drunken idoiots running around……………

      3. Interlagos was one of the most boring race in years let alone this season. As always, a long list of unpredictable factors contributed to a mediocre race.

        1. CarsVsChildren
          14th November 2010, 16:58

          Yes, but imagine Alonso’s attacks on Petrov into the Senna S’s at Interlagos.

          The track deserves to trend on twitter as a #fail.

          Utter rubbish.

    2. Yes, Vettel won it in his own special style. Pulling out the laps right there when needed and storming away from the field from Pole.

      Good strategic thinking on Red Bulls side to have Webber lure Massa and Alonso out of contention like that. Great teamwork from the Bulls there to make the right guy win.

      1. Webber should have used the SC deployment to pit and get on the primes: he had nothing to lose and everything to gain from such a move.

      2. not like Schumacher in 1994, indeed with all class, despite Mark repeatedly asking for his help. It’s so much respectable.

        1. Seriously, what does 1994 have to do with this conversation? It’s time to move into the 21st century.

          1. 1994 was Michael Schumacher’s third full season F1, 2010 was Vettel’s third full season…

          2. Because it was the only other German champion’s first title.

          3. This is no secret that Sebastian and Michael are close friends. Michael is an idol for Seb.
            I was afraid that Vettel could pull out today one of Michael’s dirty tricks. In fact as much as respectable his win against all odds is, I believe there was also a lot of simple egoism by Seb to accept support for Mark. Last week he was openly admiting they won’t proably stay friends (as contrary to HAM-BUT duo).
            Very clear message indeed. Pity Mark didn’t qualify before ALO because I beliebe we didn’t see tru colors of Seb yet.

    3. Great job by him.
      Bad job by Ferrari.
      They controlled Webber that was in the last places instead of staying with the firsts.

      1. Vettel wins the championship; good on him, but other than that, it was a severely disappointing and inapt finish to what was a great season. No-one will be saddened to know we will finish in Brazil next year…

      2. Yes, that was the key. The SC and that. Poor Fernando. Next year.

    4. YEAH BABY!!! Good for sports, because what finally prevailed was racing, not team orders. You can imagine now, the WHAT IF about Vettel giving his 1st place in Brazil to Webber, and today Horner would have been fired! But the IFs disappeared today. CONGRATULATIONS SEBASTIAN!

      1. Massa robbed of a victory and Ferrari weren’t even able of taking profit from it.

        1. I think Massa should have been left to win in Germany, don’t see what difference it would have made even if Alonso was higher up the order.

          However this is because everyone would have moaned if Alonso had won because of Germany, and therefore Red Bull would have probably wanted to take Alonso and Ferrari to court.

          But the main thing is that Vettel is the champion, so well done to him.

    5. I guess Ferrari just found out how big a mistake it was to mess up the Massa covering Webber move.

      If they had pulled that off right, Alonso wouldn’t have needed to react and it could have been different.

    6. I was made to eat my words, I thought that Big Red would win due to that issue of team orders but good for Reb Bull, What a team effort and sportmanship. Great Race and Grats to Vettel, He earned it hands down.

  2. Brilliant.

    Anyone who can still hold a grudge against this kid after hearing that radio. Swap sports. Please.

    Brilliant Season.

    1. Haha! Had to giggle at the roller coaster of emotion – lovely to hear.

      1. Agree, that was good to hear, the real emotion in Vettel’s voice.

    2. Completely agree, those tears were actually pretty special

    3. As much as Vettel irks me, I’m glad ALonso who a) blackmailed his own team and ended up costing them over a 100m dollars b) threw a tantrum when he couldn’t handle Hamilton and did shady moves like sitting in the pit box too long to prevent Hamilton from being able to get out in time for another quali lap and c) pulled that cheap move on Massa in the pits among other things.

      1. *glad Alonso didn’t win

      2. Nick:
        I don’t think it was Alonso who cost McLaren $100 million, it was the fact that the team cheated and thankfully got caught. In 2007, the team favoured Hamilton over Alonso and came away with nothing, despite having the better car that season. Alonso wasn’t the problem, it was McLaren management.

        1. ONE McLaren employee acting on his own received secret Ferrari engineering files that were not used and could not be used as their car’s design was beyond alteration. The majority of the team was not aware their colleague had what amounted to unusable data.

          When Alonso found out, he used it as a poker chip to demand #1 status and when refused, helped blow the lid.

          1. Since we are beating this dead horse… I guess you forgot the email trail that Alonso and de la Rosa had with several McLaren engineers about trying various Ferrari set-ups, etc. It was far from one person. That’s why the fine was so high and that’s why Ron Dennis did his disappearing act for the last few seasons. Google “McLaren admits guilt in spygate” and you might learn how guilty they actually were instead of the sugar-coated UK press version.

        2. Ron Dennis personally informed the FIA about it as soon as Alonso blurted it out to him in a failed attempt to get No.1 status at McLaren.

          1. Dennis only came forward after his team was caught redhanded to try to do damage control. It wasn’t like McLaren didn’t have a chance to come clean with the FIA prior to Alonso’s whistle blowing. As they say, the coverup is worse than the crime and that is why the penalty was so harsh… They knew about it and they lied to the FIA.

          2. Regardless of the severity of the cheating, only a traitor like Alonso would put his own team to the flame for it.

            Anyway, it’s weird to picture the Spaniard with McLaren. He seems fit for Ferrari and vice versa for Hamilton.

          3. Whatever… I just don’t get the British hatred of Ferrari, Alonso, Schumacher, etc. Hamilton has clearly shown the same ruthless will to win at all costs (lying in Australia, racing in the pit lane, passing the safety car, etc) and yet he farts glitter. Give it a rest guys. Alonso is no worse than your British heroes.

    4. I’m not British and I’m not a big fan of Hamilton either. He may be as ruthless, but we haven’t seen him show it at the level of Fernando in terms of blackmailing his own team, but I think he would pull a scummy move like cutting Jenson off coming into pitlane.

      I’m a Kubica fan myself.

      It’s clear that to be a consistent champion you have to be willing to be ruthless on track.

  3. Alonso was pathetic criticising Petrov

    1. I so agree, that cheating little boy has never been able to overtake. Karma will out!

      1. Apart from, you know, one of the best overtakes in modern F1 history (on Schumacher at Suzuka). It was just frustration from Fernando – I was hoping he would apologise when asked about it after the race but there you go.

        1. There is a pattern here and cannot just be whittled down to frustration. He is ruthless and thinks that everyone should get out of his way. First he wanted preference of HAM, then MAS and had this illusion that everyone should get out of the way of title contenders in the final race. What he doesn’t realize is that by getting out of the way, those same cars would also be influencing the outcome but just in a different way.

          1. 9 out of 10 drivers would have reacted the same way. They all want everyone to get out of their way, they’re all arrogant, they all think they’re the best. It’s basic competitive sports psychology.

          2. In that case I’ll always pick the one that will man up and not be a cry baby!

          3. Well, complaining about Petrov wasn’t really the right thing .. complaining about Bridestone for making the worst tyres ever would be more appropriate. I mean, seriously? 53 laps without any kind of degradation? Good we’ll have a different manufacturer next year.

      2. He was upset for sure, I’m sure he will apologize. I know it’s not an excuse but…
        As a Ferrari fan I can only congratulate Vettel and Red Bull.
        Ferrari was beaten today by it’s own tactic.

        Big congratz again for Vettel and Reb Bull.

        1. Alonso has always been a whining baby, why would he apologize?

          HAHAHAHA ALONSO & FERRARI, kick Kimi out? and no title, well deserved.

      3. Agreed. Very poor showing of sportsmanship by Alonso.

        1. Yep, another showing of poor sportsmanship by Alonso. Little whiner. Seriously…he may be a double champion, but is also an insecure little baby. He doesn’t want a fair fight. He wants to stack the cards in his favor before the “competition” starts.

      4. hahaha… strip all Alonso’s championship points for the after race insults to Petrov (that would be funny). It’s bad to be a sore loser

        1. Lol, that would make Petrov the champion!

    2. indeed…

      i’ve always supported him but that was both unnecessary and stupid.

      He’s now gone down my list…

    3. I can’t find his comments on Petrov. Can you link?

      1. he took some Advil and Ridalin and then the PR training did the work

        1. Ahhh, I didn’t catch it was a gesture in the car.

          More like oxycontin and ambien.

    4. Petrov was not intimidated by any means. He gave he international backwards “f off” wave and then even jinked his car at Alonso. Making it even more embarrassing for Alonso. One thing is for sure, Russians are timid folk.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DRxeB_21II

  4. Good to see you there Vettel… Alonso wasn’t good enough today, so the best man won! Congratulations Vettel.

  5. COngrats.

    After seeing Alonso raise his fist to PET glad Vettel won it. (I had no preference before that).

    1. The true Alonso coming out there

      1. Well, out of the 2, I like Vet more then Alo (but I’m not a Vettel fan myself.)
        That being said, while I agree with “Anyone who can still hold a grudge against this kid after hearing that radio.”, I don’t blame Alonso for showing some emotions right now, as well. He just lost a championship he nearly had in his hands, give him a break :S

        1. I dont blame Alonso either. He had to restrain his rage but… its understandable. Congratulations to Vetel!!

          1. Alonso can get angry at someone else…like his team, not the man he couldn’t get passed…or didn’t even look like getting past.

          2. He should get some overtaking tips from Kubica.
            Unbelievable moves on Sutil and Kobayashi!