Vettel celebrates his 33rd birthday today on the Red Bull Ring

F1 News

3 July 2020 at 09:01
  • GPblog.com

Sebastian Vettel celebrates his 33rd birthday on the circuit today. The German comes into action for Ferrari during his birthday during the first and second free practice sessions for the Austrian Grand Prix.

The race to the top

Vettel soon turns out to be a great talent at the beginning of his career. As a driver of Toro Rosso, the German rider makes a huge impression when he wins the rained out qualifying and race in Italy and therefore deserves the transfer to Red Bull Racing in 2009. The golden years for Vettel there will never be the same again.

From 2010 to 2013 Vettel will live up to his dream. In 2010 he takes the world title in the last race from big favourite Fernando Alonso and in the following years he has beaten the Spaniard again. To this day, Vettel is the youngest world champion ever and has four world titles left over from his period at Red Bull.

Ferrari dream

After a disappointing 2014 Vettel makes the switch to Ferrari. A dream come true for the German, who saw his idol Michael Schumacher win five world titles in the red cars. That is what Vettel wants too. In 2015 and 2016 he is working hard with the team to find the way to the top and that step seems to have been taken in 2017.

However, in 2017 and 2018 Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are continuously too strong. Errors of Vettel and also Ferrari are piling up and the competitor is taking advantage of that. Halfway through 2018 Vettel is still at the top of the championship, but everything goes downhill when he steers into the wall in leading position in Germany.

End in sight

Doubt strikes at Ferrari and who choose in 2019 for Charles Leclerc who in his first year directly defeats Vettel. Leclerc is seen as the future champion and Vettel gets no more offer from Ferrari. The German who has four world titles to his name doesn't get a chance at Ferrari and has to look for something else.

However, the options are limited and so the question is whether Vettel is working on his final year in Formula 1. Does Vettel still want to start a new project at Renault or will he get the dreamed seat at Mercedes? Now Vettel will not be working on that yet. Today he can celebrate his career and birthday in the car, where he has been performing at a high level for years.