“Du bist weltmeister! Sebastian Vettel, you are the world champion!” With these words, Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner announced Vettel’s F1 world championship victory in 2010, marking the first of four world titles the German would win with Red Bull.
The 2010 F1 season was one of the most hotly contested in the sport’s recent history, the last time four drivers contended for the title in the final race, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 14, 2010. Victory in this decisive race, along with the results of his title rivals, made Vettel, at 23 years and 135 days, the youngest F1 world champion.
A Fierce Season
The four drivers vying for the title were Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber with Red Bull, Fernando Alonso with Ferrari, and Lewis Hamilton with McLaren. From the start, the season promised a fierce competition, with five different drivers (the four title contenders plus Jenson Button) winning the first five races. After these opening rounds, Jenson Button led the championship with 70 points.
In the following races, the championship lead shifted to Mark Webber, but within two races, the Australian was overtaken by the British McLaren duo, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Hamilton held the lead for four races before being overtaken again by Webber, while Sebastian Vettel followed in third, 10 points behind his teammate, the championship leader.
After briefly losing the championship lead in Belgium, Webber regained it at Monza and held it until the Korean GP, the season’s third-to-last race, when Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso took the lead. Alonso held onto the lead through the Brazilian GP, and the standings saw Alonso in first place with 246 points, followed by Webber with 238 points, Vettel with 231 points, and Hamilton with 222 points, all still mathematically in the title fight.
Heading into Abu Dhabi, the title battle seemed to be mainly between Alonso and Webber; Vettel could only become world champion if he won and Alonso finished outside the top four, or if he placed second while Webber finished outside the top four and Alonso no higher than ninth.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Vettel started the race from pole position, with Lewis Hamilton in second, Alonso in third, and Webber in fifth. The race began, but after just six corners, an incident involving Schumacher and Liuzzi triggered the safety car. When racing resumed, Vettel and Hamilton pulled away, leaving the others unable to match the pace of these two young drivers, who would soon become icons of 2010s F1.
The race’s turning point was a strategic miscalculation by Ferrari after Webber made an early pit stop on lap 11 due to a minor brush with the barriers. Fernando Alonso pitted as well, rejoining the track behind Petrov’s Renault. The Ferrari of the Spaniard failed to overtake the Russian, remaining behind his Renault for the rest of the GP and finishing in seventh, thus ending Alonso’s championship dreams in his first season with Ferrari.
Ferrari’s strategy worked against Webber, who finished behind Fernando Alonso, but not against the young Vettel, who went on to win the race. Sebastian Vettel was officially crowned world champion, topping the drivers’ standings with 256 points, while Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber finished second and third with 252 and 242 points, respectively.
Sebastian Vettel became the youngest F1 world champion in history and the third driver to win the title without ever leading the standings during the season, just as John Surtees did in 1964 and James Hunt in 1976. The 2010 title began the Vettel era, with him going on to win the next three championships and becoming the youngest driver ever to claim four world titles at the age of 26 years, 3 months, and 25 days.
Leave a Reply