Sunday November 14th 2021
When Vettel celebrated for the first time
Not even Verstappen achieved this rating
It doesn’t look very realistic in November 2010 that Sebastian Vettel will be able to celebrate his first world title. But Formula 1 makes it really exciting – and in the end the German is cheering. He becomes the youngest world champion, also because his Red Bull team denied their team rivals an advantage.
It’s not as if it wasn’t announced at all. Sebastian Vettel, this young German with the big grin, made an early impression in Formula 1. World Championship points in his debut race at the age of 19, then at 21 the first pole position and the first victory in Monza, at 22 the shooting star is over Heppenheim suddenly became vice world champion.
And yet Vettel travels as an outsider to the season finale in Abu Dhabi in November 2010. Fernando Alonso is about to win the title in his first Ferrari season, starting with 246 points and a fairly comfortable lead. If someone will stop the Spaniard, it will be Vettel’s Red Bull team rival Mark Webber (238). The German (231) would need a lot of help.
However, he gets that right away from his own racing team: Help by omission. Red Bull rules out an obvious stable order for Webber. “I’m an optimist and will fight to the end,” says Vettel, and he can do that.
Perhaps also because the trend is its friend at the end of the season. Vettel has won two of the past three races, and in Abu Dhabi he immediately shoots back into pole position. Alonso on three, Webber on five, Vettel’s path to the first title still seems long.
But then an accident between Michael Schumacher and Vitantonio Liuzzi starts the drama: Webber and Alonso choose the wrong tactics in the safety car phase and ultimately get stuck behind slower cars.
At the top, Vettel turns his laps unmoved, already showing this dominance, which will subsequently carry him to three more World Cup titles. On the evening of November 14, 2010 tears of joy flow, Vettel is 23rd youngest world champion in Formula 1 history. He has remained so to this day – even Max Verstappen would be a year too late if he won this season.