Best F1 Rookie Seasons: Sebastian Vettel

After making an unexpected F1 debut in 2007, 19-year-old Sebastian Vettel replaced Robert Kubica who was still recovering from a huge crash in Montreal. Vettel finished eighth on his race debut, taking a point and becoming F1’s youngest points scorer at 19 years and 349 days. After making such good impressions, it was no surprise how successful his first full season in F1 was.

Sebastian Vettel‘s rookie season was in 2008. This was his first full season in Formula One. Vettel had made a few appearances in the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Those appearances were impressive, to say the least, but his rookie season was one for the history books.

At the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix, Vettel was named BMW Sauber’s third driver. It was in Istanbul Park where he made his testing debut. Despite his inexperience, he set the fastest time in the second Friday Free Practice. At that point, Vettel became the then-youngest Formula One driver to participate in a Grand Prix weekend at 19 years and 53 days. Interestingly, just nine seconds into his F1 career, Vettel exceeded the pitlane speed limit on the way to the track earning him a fine – his most infamous record. He set the record for collecting the fastest first-time fine in F1.

Vettel made his second F1 appearance the following weekend at the 2006 Italian Grand Prix. Once again, he made a statement by setting the fastest time in both Friday practice sessions.

Not surprisingly, BMW Sauber showed their commitment to Vettel by confirming him as their test driver for 2007. Following Robert Kubica’s crash at the 2007 Canadian GP, Vettel was named his replacement at the 2007 United States GP. After qualifying in P7, he finished the race in P8 to become the then-youngest driver to score F1 points.

The pen on paper that started it all

2007 continued to be an incredible year for the German driver. After being released by BMW, Vettel signed a Red Bull Racing contract. Red Bull announced that Vettel would be replacing Toro Rosso driver Scott Speed from 2007 Hungary onwards. Of which, his best performance was a P4 finish having started 17th at the Chinese Grand Prix.

It was also announced that he would drive for Toro Rosso in the 2008 season alongside Sébastien Bourdais.

The storm before the calm

Sebastian Vettel’s first races in his first full season as an F1 driver did not bear him the results he would have loved.

In the first four races of the 2008 season, Vettel was the only driver that had failed to finish a single race. The young German had retired on the first lap in three of them. Despite qualifying an impressive P10 in his Toro Rosso at the first race weekend of the season, a collision in lap 1 led to an early retirement in Australia. At the Malaysian GP, a hydraulics failure put an end to Vettel’s race after 39 laps. In the third and fourth races of the season, in Bahrain and Spain respectively, it was another lap 1 collision for Vettel.

Vettel’s first points came in Monaco, where he qualified in P18, but finished the race in an impressive P5. In Canada, after damaging his car during third practice, the rookie was unable to participate in qualifying. He therefore started the race in P1 but managed to claw his way up to P8, earning a point.

Despite managing to score some points, it seemed like Vettel hadn’t yet quite gotten to grips with his Toro Rosso. It was only P12 for Vettel in France and another lap 1 collision ending his race, but this time at Silverstone. He finished P8 in his home race at Hockenheim, and a retirement in Hungary due to overheating.

The gear shift that changed it all

In Toro Rosso’s technical director Giorgio Ascanelli’s own words:

“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.” – Ascanelli on Vettel explaining that something had changed at the European Grand Prix in Valencia.

It was no exaggeration, seeing as Vettel constantly performed superbly in his midfield car from Valencia onwards.

Vettel had set the fastest time in both Free Practice 1 and Q2 in Valencia. He later qualified in P6, which is where he finished the race. The following race was in Belgium where he qualified P10. During the race, the track was still wet from earlier rains, and Vettel locked his brakes and ran wide. He lost two places as a result. Vettel made a great recovery and found himself fourth with one lap to go. However, with the rain pouring and the wrong tyres on, he lost a position and finished the race P5.

History maker

The Italian GP was another wet weekend, and it was Vettel’s most successful at the time. In very wet conditions, Vettel became the youngest driver in F1 history to take pole position at 21 years, 72 days old. Before the race, there were heavy rains, and more was expected throughout the day. Vettel retained his lead into the first corner and immediately opened a lead of two seconds over Heikki Kovalainen’s McLaren. By lap eight the gap was at 6.3 seconds.

Eventually, Vettel crossed the finish line 12.5 seconds ahead of Kovalainen. With his display of maturity on a weekend where he had been dealt the right cards, F1 rookie Sebastian Vettel became the then-youngest driver in F1 history to win a Grand Prix. More impressively, that was Toro Rosso’s first-ever race win in F1. That was Toro Rosso’s only win until Pierre Gasly won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix for Toro Rosso who were then called Alpha Tauri, almost as if it was written in the stars.

In the remaining four races of the season, Vettel qualified within the top 10 each time. Singapore saw a P5 finish,  Japan P5 and P9 in China. At the final race of the season, Brazil, Vettel finished P4 just 9 tenths of a second ahead of crowned 2008 Champion Lewis Hamilton.

Sebastian Vettel finished his first full season P8 in the Drivers’ Championship. The F1 rookie finished 31 points ahead of his teammate Bourdais, with Vettel having finished the season with 35 points.

After such an impressive season, Vettel replaced the retired David Coulthard at Red Bull Racing for the 2009 season. The rest is history.