BMW Sauber reserve driver (2006–2007) 2006: Test debut Vettel became BMW Sauber's third driver at the
2006 Turkish Grand Prix, when former incumbent
Robert Kubica replaced
Jacques Villeneuve as second driver for the
2006 Hungarian Grand Prix. On his testing debut, Vettel set the fastest time in the second Friday free practice. Vettel became the then-youngest Formula One driver to participate in a Grand Prix weekend at 19 years and 53 days. He also set a record for the shortest time before first career fine, collecting his first fine in nine seconds by exceeding the pitlane speed limit on the way to the track. In his second testing session at the
2006 Italian Grand Prix, he set the fastest time in both Friday practice sessions.
2007: Debut . Vettel was confirmed as BMW's test driver for . Following Kubica's crash at the
2007 Canadian Grand Prix, Vettel was named his replacement at the
2007 United States Grand Prix. He started in seventh position and finished in eighth to become the then-youngest driver to score a point in Formula One.
Toro Rosso (2007–2008) 2007–2008: Maiden race win and rise to prominence BMW released him in July 2007 to join
Red Bull's
Scuderia Toro Rosso, replacing
Scott Speed from the
2007 Hungarian Grand Prix onwards, as Vettel was already under contract to
Red Bull Racing. It was also announced that he would drive for Toro Rosso in alongside
Sébastien Bourdais. In the rain-affected at
Fuji, Vettel worked his way up to third, behind
Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull Racing's
Mark Webber, and seemed to be on course for his and the team's maiden podium finish. However, Vettel crashed into Webber under
safety car conditions, forcing both cars to retire. Webber said after the race: "It's kids isn't it. Kids with not enough experience – you do a good job and then they fuck it all up". Vettel was initially punished with a ten-place grid penalty for the following race, but this was lifted after a spectator video on
YouTube showed the incident may have been caused by Hamilton's behaviour behind the safety car. Vettel finished a career-best fourth a week later at the , having started 17th on the grid while in mixed conditions. He was tipped by Red Bull owner
Dietrich Mateschitz as one of the sport's big future stars: "Vettel is one of the young guys with extraordinary potential [...] He is fast, he is intelligent, and he is very interested in the technical side." 's only race win, only pole position and first podium at the
2008 Italian Grand Prix. After four races of the season, Vettel was the only driver to have failed to finish a single race, having retired on the first lap in three of them. At the , Vettel scored his first points of the season with a fifth-place finish, after qualifying 17th. Toro Rosso's technical director Giorgio Ascanelli explained that something changed at the in
Valencia: "Suddenly Vettel understood something about how to drive an F1 car quickly. It made a huge difference – not only to the speed he could unlock but also to his ability to do so consistently." At the wet , Vettel became the
youngest driver in history to win a Formula One Grand Prix, aged 21 years and 74 days. He led for the majority of the Grand Prix and crossed the finish line 12.5 seconds ahead of
McLaren's
Heikki Kovalainen. It would also be Toro Rosso's only win. Earlier in the weekend, he had already become the
youngest pole-sitter. Toro Rosso team boss
Gerhard Berger said: "As he proved today, he can win races, but he's going to win World Championships. He's a cool guy". His victory led the German media to dub him "Baby Schumi". Vettel was named 2008 Rookie of the Year at the
Autosport Awards.
Red Bull (2009–2014) 2009: Championship contender in 2009. At the start of the season, Vettel replaced the retired
David Coulthard at Red Bull Racing. He began strongly at the , running in second for the majority of the race. However, a clash with
Robert Kubica over second place in the latter stages forced both to retire. He went on to take pole position and the race win at ; Red Bull Racing's maiden pole and win. Further wins followed in
Great Britain,
Japan and
Abu Dhabi. He won the Japanese Grand Prix from pole position, leading every lap. Vettel won the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the first ever day-night race, to finish second in the World Drivers' Championship standings behind
Jenson Button. He also scored his third
fastest lap of the year, drawing him level with teammate
Mark Webber. However, as Vettel had more second fastest laps, he won the 2009
DHL Fastest Lap Award.
2010: Youngest World Champion Vettel took the first pole position of the season at the . He led most of the race but as a result of a
spark plug failure, Vettel finished in fourth place. At the , Vettel was appointed as a director of the
Grand Prix Drivers' Association. He took his first win of the season in
Malaysia. In
Monaco, Vettel made it a Red Bull 1–2 with him second and Webber first. Both were equal on points in the standings, with Webber first based on total wins. At the , Vettel was running second behind Webber when he made a passing move on his teammate. The two collided, putting Vettel out of the race, with neither driver accepting responsibility for the collision. , a record which he still holds. At the , both Vettel and Webber's cars were fitted with a new front wing design. Vettel's wing was damaged in the third practice session, and Webber's sole surviving example was removed and given to his teammate. Vettel qualified in first place, but suffered a puncture. He finished seventh while Webber took the victory. In
Japan, he qualified on pole ahead of Webber and went on to win with a lights-to-flag victory. Aged 23 years and 98 days, Vettel became the youngest Grand Prix driver to win at the same track on two occasions. At the inaugural , Vettel led the first 45 laps before retiring with engine failure, handing victory to championship rival
Fernando Alonso. With the 1–2 finish at the , Vettel and Webber secured Red Bull Racing's first
World Constructors' Championship. Vettel went into the final race of the season in
Abu Dhabi with a 15-point deficit to Alonso and a 7-point gap to Webber. He won the Grand Prix from pole to become the youngest
World Drivers' Champion in the sport's history, as Alonso only finished in seventh place. Following
John Surtees in the season and
James Hunt in , this was the third time in Formula One history that the title winner had not topped the championship table until after the last race.
2011: Dominant second title Vettel started the season with wins in
Australia and
Malaysia, before a second-place finish at the due to poor tyre management, possibly related to his inability to properly communicate with his team, as his radio was broken. In
Monaco, Vettel led the race but due to another radio malfunction, the Red Bull pit crew was not prepared when he came in. The
pit stop was slow and he was sent out on the wrong tyres, handing the lead to Button. Vettel switched to a one-stop strategy and stuck with one set of soft tyres for 56 laps. He was caught by Alonso and Button as his tyres deteriorated, but neither were able to pass him. The race was
red-flagged with few laps remaining, which allowed teams to change their tyres; when the race was restarted under the safety car, Vettel was able to retain the lead and win. At the , the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) enforced a ban on engine mappings. It was believed by some in the press that this was an attempt by the FIA to thwart Vettel's early domination. Nevertheless, he took pole with the fastest qualifying lap in
Valencia Street Circuit's history. Vettel dominated with his first
hat-trick of 2011, and won his sixth race out of eight. The FIA implemented another rule change at the , targeting the blown diffusers. Red Bull believed the changes would cost them about half a second per lap. During the race, Vettel held off Webber for second place, who ignored a radio message from team principal
Christian Horner to hold position. It was only the second time in the sport's history that a driver had finished second or higher in each of the first nine races of a season and won at least six of them. Vettel's run of fourteen successive front-row starts and eleven successive top two finishes ended at
his home race, where he qualified third and finished fourth. In
Italy, he took his tenth pole position of the year, in which he joined
Ayrton Senna as the only driver to have taken ten pole positions in two separate seasons. A podium finish in
Japan secured his second successive title with four races remaining, making him the youngest ever double and back-to-back champion. Vettel won the following race in
Korea to become the second driver to take at least ten wins in a season after Michael Schumacher. He also helped to secure Red Bull's second successive World Constructors' Championship. Vettel took his eleventh victory of the season in
the inaugural Indian Grand Prix, leading every lap from pole position, as well as setting the race's fastest lap to claim his first
grand slam. Vettel broke the record for the most pole positions in a season at the season finale in
Brazil, after he clinched his 15th pole of the year. He completed the year with 15 poles, 11 victories, and 17 podiums from 19 races; Vettel also earned a record total of 392 points.
2012: Triple World Champion following Alonso title duel Vettel started the season with a second place at the , before he finished outside the points in
Malaysia following a collision with backmarker
Narain Karthikeyan. Vettel and Horner criticised Karthikeyan's driving, with Vettel calling him an "idiot", and a "cucumber". Karthikeyan hit back, calling Vettel a "cry baby". Vettel crossed the line in first place at the to go top of the championship standings. Three races without a podium place followed, before he retired at the after an alternator failure, dropping him to fourth in the standings. In
Germany, Vettel finished second behind Alonso but received a 20-second time penalty after the race, as he was off the track when he overtook Button; Vettel dropped back to fifth. He started in 10th place but finished second in
Belgium to climb up to second place in the championship. Vettel then retired at the due to an alternator failure, which saw the gap to leader Alonso grow to 39 points with seven races remaining. He won next race in
Singapore, as he kept the lead until the 2-hour race limit was reached. At the he took his second career grand slam and coupled with Alonso's retirement, he cut the gap down to just four points. After winning at the , the
Indian Grand Prix brought another victory, as Vettel topped all three practice sessions before taking pole position and leading every lap of the race to win. During qualifying at the , Vettel was told to stop the car due to a fuel pump issue; he was forced to start from the pit lane. From last place, Vettel fought his way back to finish in third place. He started the last race in
Brazil with a 13-point cushion against Alonso. On the opening lap, Vettel spun after an incident with
Bruno Senna. Following changing weather conditions, Vettel climbed up to finish in sixth place to win the championship by three points and to become the youngest ever triple world champion. He also became the third driver to acquire three consecutive championships, after
Juan Manuel Fangio and Schumacher.
2013: Record-breaking season earns fourth world title (right) for his first race win of the season at the
2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, despite being given team orders to maintain position. Vettel started the first two races of the season on pole position, and at the , he lapped over 2.5 seconds faster than teammate Webber in qualifying during a wet session. He won the race, though not without controversy. Vettel ignored the
team orders and passed Webber for the lead. Webber was furious after the race and said that Vettel "will have protection as usual and that's the way it goes". Team principal Horner, although unhappy with Vettel's actions, pointed out that Webber had defied team orders on several previous occasions. He acknowledged that the already fragile relationship between the two drivers had further broken down as a result of the incident. Vettel claimed that he was not sorry for winning and that if the situation presented itself again, he would have passed Webber despite the order, adding that he felt Webber did not deserve to win the race. Following wins in
Bahrain and
Canada, his championship lead was cut at the as he was denied a likely win due to gearbox failure. Vettel bounced back to win his home race in
Germany for the first time. After he finished third in
Hungary, Vettel won the last nine races of the season, including grand slams in
Singapore and
Korea. Vettel set the then-record for most consecutive race wins with nine and he became only the third man after
Alberto Ascari and
Jim Clark to take consecutive grand slams. He sealed his fourth world title at the ; before the race weekend, Formula One CEO
Bernie Ecclestone stated that Vettel was "probably the best [driver] we've ever had". Vettel totalled 13 wins by the end of the season and a then-record 155 points over runner-up
Fernando Alonso. On several occasions during the season, spectators booed Vettel. The booing was widely condemned by fellow drivers, the media and others in the paddock, and Vettel later revealed that it had a negative impact on him.
2014: Winless year and departure from Red Bull For the season and beyond, drivers picked a unique car number to use for the remainder of their Formula One career; Vettel chose the number five. However, as reigning World Drivers' Champion, he carried number one throughout the season. Webber left the sport and was replaced by
Daniel Ricciardo, who was promoted from Toro Rosso. Vettel struggled with reliability issues throughout winter testing, which forced him to retire at the opening . Reliability problems also forced Vettel to retire at the
Monaco and
Austrian Grands Prix. Vettel qualified on the front-row for the races in
Malaysia,
Great Britain and
Hungary, and finished on the podium in Malaysia,
Canada,
Singapore and
Japan. After the , he had been outqualified by a teammate over a season for the first time in his Formula One career. In addition to suffering reliability problems, throughout 2014 Vettel struggled to get to grips with the
Red Bull RB10, and the
Pirelli tyres. He signed off the year by becoming the first defending champion to fail to win a race during a season since
Jacques Villeneuve in . In October, Red Bull had announced that Vettel would be leaving the team at the end of the season to join
Scuderia Ferrari, one year before his contract was due to expire.
Daniil Kvyat was later selected as his replacement. Vettel replaced Alonso and partnered his friend Kimi Räikkönen. Vettel mentioned he would like to drive for Ferrari at some point in his career and was already rumoured in 2012 to have a non-binding pre-contract, with options, to join them in 2014. He was denied an early release from his Red Bull contract to test the
2014 Ferrari car in
Abu Dhabi. In spite of this, Vettel was present at the Ferrari test – although not driving the car – but Red Bull did not enforce any sanctions. Vettel instead made his first appearance in November, completing nearly 100 laps in the
2012 car around the test track of
Fiorano.
Ferrari (2015–2020) 2015: Returning to the top step Vettel made his Ferrari debut by finishing third in the . He followed that up with winning the , his first race victory for over a year and the first win for Ferrari for almost two years. After the race, an emotional Vettel paid tribute to Schumacher, saying that his hero's achievements with Ferrari made the first win all the more special. He won the to remain a championship contender after he started from third on the grid. He dedicated his victory to the driver
Jules Bianchi, who died the week prior from injuries sustained in 2014. At the halfway point of the season, Vettel was 42 points behind championship leader and
Mercedes driver Hamilton. Vettel was in third place in
Belgium when his right rear blew at high speed on the penultimate lap, likely ending any title chances given Hamilton's win. After the race, he ranted about the 'unacceptable' and 'unsafe' Pirelli tyres that could have caused him serious injury. . Vettel came home second in the , his first race with Ferrari at the team's home soil. He then took his first pole with the team at the
Singapore Grand Prix, Ferrari's first pole for three years. Vettel went on to win the race, and with Hamilton retiring, he closed to within 49 points with seven races remaining. Vettel ended the season in third place, however, with three wins and 13 podiums; he declared the season as a 'miracle'.
2016: Second winless year After a third-place finish at the
2016 Australian Grand Prix, Vettel's participation in
Bahrain ended without starting as his car broke down on the formation lap. At the , Vettel collided with teammate Räikkönen on the first lap, but both were able to continue. He blamed Red Bull driver
Daniil Kvyat for the collision, labelling him a "madman" and described his overtaking manoeuvre as "suicidal". At the , Vettel retired on the first lap after two consecutive collisions with Kvyat. At the , Vettel attempted to overtake Red Bull driver
Max Verstappen, but after Verstappen ran off the track and rejoined ahead of him, Vettel verbally attacked him and race director
Charlie Whiting, for which he later apologised. Vettel then blocked Red Bull's Ricciardo by moving in the braking zone, and was given a ten-second penalty and two points on his licence. Although he achieved seven podium finishes during the season, Vettel did not win any races in 2016. The early form continued the following races, winning in
Bahrain and
Monaco, and finishing second in
China,
Russia and
Spain. In Russia, Vettel took his first pole position in 18 months and with Räikkönen alongside him, Ferrari had their first front row lock out since the
2008 French Grand Prix. Vettel's lead at the top of the standings increased to 25 points after the Monaco Grand Prix, Ferrari's first victory at the circuit since Schumacher won there in
2001. Moments later, Vettel pulled alongside and hit his Mercedes as they prepared for a restart, for which he received a ten-second stop-go penalty. The FIA investigated the Vettel-Hamilton incident further, but Vettel received no punishment. Vettel took full responsibility, issuing a public apology and committing to devote personal time over the next 12 months to educational activities across a variety of FIA championships and events. Vettel's championship lead was cut to only a single point in
Great Britain, as he suffered a puncture on the penultimate lap and dropped to seventh place. Vettel started from pole in
Hungary and maintained the lead. He overcame steering issues and held on for victory, which gave him a 14-point lead over Hamilton. Mercedes dominated after the summer break and Vettel lost the championship lead at the
Italian Grand Prix, which was followed by a first-lap retirement in
Singapore after collision with Räikkönen and Verstappen. It was the first time in Formula One history that both Ferraris retired from the first lap of a Grand Prix. His title hopes were dealt another blow in
Malaysia, as he started last following a turbo problem in qualifying. He finished in fourth place, but crashed with Williams'
Lance Stroll on the cool-down lap; neither would be penalised. More reliability issues befell Ferrari in
Japan as Vettel retired due to a spark plug failure. In
Mexico, Vettel became the fourth driver in Formula One history to claim 50 pole positions. Verstappen took the lead from Vettel at the start, before Vettel collided with Hamilton, after which Hamilton won his fourth title. For the first time in his career, Vettel failed to win the World Drivers' Championship having led it at some stage during a season. The season was dubbed the "Fight For Five" by the media, as for the first time in Formula One history, two quadruple world champions lined up at the start of a season. For the second consecutive year, Vettel began the season with victory in
Australia, after he took the lead while pitting under the virtual safety car. It was his 100th podium, while he also became only the third man in Formula One history to have led 3,000 laps. In
Bahrain, Vettel maintained the lead from pole through the first round of pit stops and held off Mercedes'
Valtteri Bottas despite being on old soft tyres to take a fourth victory at the circuit. At the , he was hit by Verstappen in the latter stages of the race, which caused both to spin. Vettel limped home in eighth place, with his championship lead reduced to nine points. For the first time since 2013, Vettel took three consecutive pole positions as he qualified in first place in
Azerbaijan. It was the 23rd different Grand Prix at which he had taken pole position, equalling Hamilton's then-record. At the , Vettel won for the third time in 2018 and for the 50th time in his career, becoming only the fourth man to reach a half-century of wins. The following race in
France, Vettel lost the championship lead following a collision with Bottas. He bounced back in
Great Britain, after he passed Bottas in the last laps to take victory. Vettel led his
home race until he slid off the track and hit the wall in the latter stages as rain started to fall, as he had clipped the sausage curb a few laps before, breaking a part of his front wing, causing understeer and loss of downforce; he won in
Belgium, however, in which he passed Hamilton for the race victory. Contact on the opening lap with Hamilton in
Italy saw Vettel damage his front wing and drop to the back of the field, but he recovered to cross the finishing line in fourth place. It left Vettel 30 points behind the Mercedes driver with seven races left. His championship hopes were dealt a further blow as Ferrari's upgrades introduced at the
Singapore Grand Prix proved to be unsuccessful, making a step backwards on car development; Ferrari suffered a dip of form until the
United States Grand Prix, where they reverted to their old package and successfully rediscovered their form. Vettel claimed his first ever podium in
Mexico but the World Drivers' Championship went to Hamilton for a second consecutive year. Although Mercedes had been the more consistent and better team, fans and pundits criticised Vettel for making too many mistakes during the season.
2019–2020: Decline and departure from Ferrari After showing impressive pace throughout pre-season testing in
Barcelona, Vettel and his new teammate
Charles Leclerc headed to
Australia with many pundits believing they had the car to beat for the season. The opening weekend proved to be difficult, however, as Vettel qualified some seven tenths off pole position in third and finished the race in fourth place. Third-place finishes in
China and
Azerbaijan followed, as Mercedes continued to dominate. Vettel took pole position in
Canada; his first pole in 17 races. Midway through the race, a snap of oversteer caused him to run wide onto the grass. Vettel received a five-second time penalty from the stewards, who believed he had returned to the track "in an unsafe manner and forced [Hamilton] off track". Vettel crossed the line in first place but lost his victory as a result of the penalty. After the race, he swapped the number one and two signs in front of Hamilton's Mercedes and the empty spot that was supposed for his own car, as Vettel parked his car at the start of the pit entry. At the , Vettel was unable to qualify after a turbo issue, which meant he would start in last place. During a race with mixed weather conditions, Vettel climbed up to second place. . In
Italy, Vettel spun at the Ascari chicane and when he re-entered the track, he made contact with
Racing Point's Stroll. Vettel received a 10-second stop-go penalty and finished in 13th place. At the , Vettel won on a circuit Ferrari were expected to struggle at. For the first time, Vettel had won five times at the same track. The following race, in
Russia, Vettel went from third place on the grid to first place in the first corner. However, radio transmissions suggested that the team wanted to swap their drivers, but with Vettel the quicker driver, he remained in front. Vettel retired soon after with a MGU-K problem. Vettel took pole position in
Japan, but an abrupt start off the line caused him to momentarily stop before getting away, which allowed Bottas to take the lead; Vettel was not penalized for his jump start. After running in third at the for the majority of the race, a safety car allowed Red Bull's
Alexander Albon and an aggressive Leclerc to overtake him. He tried to pass his teammate immediately but the two Ferraris collided, resulting in another retirement for Vettel. He finished fifth in the World Drivers' Championship, and was outscored by a teammate for only the second time across a season. on their
1000th Grand Prix Ferrari later announced they would not extend Vettel's contract beyond the season. Team principal
Mattia Binotto explained there was "no specific reason" for the decision, though both parties noted it was an amicable agreement. The team would sign
Carlos Sainz Jr. as Vettel's replacement. The season was disrupted by the
COVID-19 pandemic as the first ten races of the original calendar were either rescheduled, postponed or cancelled altogether. Ferrari discovered problems on their car following pre-season testing, forcing them to make a major redesign. The
SF1000 lacked pace as Vettel finished the season's opening race in
Austria in 10th place. During the weekend, he was also given a warning for breaching the FIA's
COVID-19 protocols after he was seen mixing with members of his former team Red Bull. The following race, at the , Vettel retired on the opening lap with rear wing damage following a collision with Leclerc. He ended the season in a disappointing 13th place in the Drivers' standings, with a third place in
Turkey as his best result. Ferrari only finished sixth in the Constructors' standings, their worst result since
1980, while Vettel's total of 33 points was the lowest in a full campaign in his Formula One career. In his debut race weekend in
Bahrain, he received a grid penalty in qualifying, forcing him to start last. While Vettel started well, he had a collision with
Esteban Ocon, giving him a time penalty and ended up finishing in 15th place. He received five penalty points on his
superlicence. Aston Martin team principal
Otmar Szafnauer reported no concerns, owing to this being a very different car from the Ferrari, lack of laps in pre-season testing and a very impressive race start. In the fifth race of the season, Vettel scored his first points for the team with a fifth-place finish in
Monaco. At the following race, the
Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he claimed Aston Martin's first, and his final, podium with a second-place finish. Vettel also finished second in
Hungary, but was later disqualified, after his car failed to provide the one litre sample of fuel required. He ended the season in 12th place in the Drivers' standings, ahead of teammate Stroll. During the season, Vettel made 132 overtakes—the most of any driver—and won the inaugural
Overtake Award.
2022: Retirement Vettel missed the first two races of the
2022 season in
Bahrain and
Saudi Arabia after testing positive for
COVID-19; he was substituted by Aston Martin's reserve driver
Nico Hülkenberg. In July 2022, Vettel announced his retirement from Formula One at the end of the 2022 season. Vettel would score his last F1 career point at his 300th and final race at
Abu Dhabi to end his final F1 season in 12th place in the standings. ==Driver profile==