Sebastian Vettel is a German former racing driver who won four Formula One World Championships.[1] He entered Formula One in 2007 with BMW Sauber, in place of the injured Robert Kubica at the United States Grand Prix, finishing eighth to become the youngest driver to score a world championship point in Formula One.[a][3] Midway through the season, Vettel joined Toro Rosso for the rest of the year and 2008. Vettel moved to the Red Bull Racing team in 2009, and won his first world championship in 2010, a season in which he became the youngest ever world drivers' title winner.[1] Vettel won four titles in a row with Red Bull from 2010 to 2013, which made him the youngest driver to win two, three and four world championships.[4] After an unsuccessful year in 2014 in which he did not register a single victory, Vettel activated a clause in his contract allowing him to leave the Red Bull team.[5] He moved to the Ferrari team in 2015 and drove for them until 2020, twice finishing runner-up to Lewis Hamilton of the Mercedes team in 2017 and 2018. The final two seasons of Vettel's Formula One career saw him drive for the Aston Martin team.[1]
His first Grand Prix win came in the rain-affected 2008 Italian Grand Prix on 14 September; Vettel became the youngest driver to win a Formula One race at 21 years, 2 months and 11 days.[b][7][8] He won four races in his first season with Red Bull in 2009 and finished runner-up to Jenson Button. Vettel took a further 34 victories with Red Bull in his four world championship winning seasons.[1] His 2013 season included 13 Grand Prix victories, which equalled seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher's record for most wins in a season.[c][10] Vettel also took nine consecutive wins that year, from the Belgian Grand Prix to the Brazilian Grand Prix to equal two-time world champion Alberto Ascari's record from 1952 to 1953.[d][12][13] The 2014 season was the first since his debut year that Vettel did not achieve a race victory. He won three races in his first season with Ferrari in 2015 and none in 2016. This was followed by five victories each in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, one in 2019 and none in each of the 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons.[1]
Vettel is currently ranked fourth in the all-time Formula One Grand Prix winners' list with 53 victories from 299 starts; the majority of his race victories (38) came with Red Bull; he also won 14 races with Ferrari and 1 for Toro Rosso.[14] His most successful circuit is the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the host track of the Singapore Grand Prix, where he won 5 times, with 8 podium finishes in 12 races.[15][16] Vettel's largest margin of victory in his career was at the 2013 Singapore Grand Prix, a race where he finished 32.627 seconds ahead of the second-placed Ferrari of Fernando Alonso,[17][18] and the smallest margin of victory was at the 2011 Spanish Grand Prix, where he beat McLaren's Lewis Hamilton by 0.630 seconds.[19][20]
Wins
Key:
- No. – Victory number; for example, "1" signifies Vettel's first race win.
- Race – Race number in Vettel's Formula One career; for example "75" signifies Vettel's 75th Formula One race.
- Grid – The position on the grid from which Vettel started the race.
- Margin – Margin of victory, given in the format of minutes:seconds.milliseconds
- † – Driver's Championship winning season.
Number of wins at different Grands Prix
Vettel has won at 21 out of 39 different Grands Prix he has partaken in. The 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, the Austrian Grand Prix, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the Dutch Grand Prix, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the Eifel Grand Prix, the French Grand Prix, the Mexican Grand Prix, the Mexico City Grand Prix, the Miami Grand Prix, the Portuguese Grand Prix, the Qatar Grand Prix, the Russian Grand Prix, the Sakhir Grand Prix, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Styrian Grand Prix and the Tuscan Grand Prix are the events he has entered and not won.[15]
| No. | Grand Prix | Years won | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore Grand Prix | 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2019 | 5 |
| 2 | Japanese Grand Prix | 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 | 4 |
| Malaysian Grand Prix | 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015 | ||
| Bahrain Grand Prix | 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018 | ||
| 5 | Italian Grand Prix | 2008, 2011, 2013 | 3 |
| Korean Grand Prix | 2011, 2012, 2013 | ||
| Indian Grand Prix | 2011, 2012, 2013 | ||
| Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | 2009, 2010, 2013 | ||
| Brazilian Grand Prix | 2010, 2013, 2017 | ||
| Australian Grand Prix | 2011, 2017, 2018 | ||
| Belgian Grand Prix | 2011, 2013, 2018 | ||
| 12 | European Grand Prix | 2010, 2011 | 2 |
| Monaco Grand Prix | 2011, 2017 | ||
| Hungarian Grand Prix | 2015, 2017 | ||
| Canadian Grand Prix | 2013, 2018 | ||
| British Grand Prix | 2009, 2018 | ||
| 17 | Chinese Grand Prix | 2009 | 1 |
| Turkish Grand Prix | 2011 | ||
| Spanish Grand Prix | 2011 | ||
| German Grand Prix | 2013 | ||
| United States Grand Prix | 2013 | ||
| Total number of Grand Prix wins: | 53 | ||
| Sources:[14][15] | |||
Number of wins at different circuits
Vettel has won at 21 out of 37 different race tracks he has competed on. The Algarve International Circuit, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the Baku City Circuit, the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours, the Circuit Paul Ricard, Circuit Zandvoort, the Hockenheimring, Fuji Speedway, the Imola Circuit, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, the Losail International Circuit, the Miami International Autodrome, Mugello Circuit, the Red Bull Ring and the Sochi Autodrom are the circuits he has driven and not won an event.[16]