Sebastian Vettel’s chances at winning his fifth career Formula One championship this season are slim, but they still exist. Here is how he can stay alive in the Mexican Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel is now 66 points behind Formula One points leader Lewis Hamilton in the drivers standings with three races to go in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi and a maximum of 75 points still on the table, with 25 going to the winners of each of those remaining three races. So it appears very likely that Hamilton will win the 2017 Formula One championship, the fourth of his career.
However, Vettel still has a chance to win his fifth career Formula One championship. While Hamilton has secured the win tiebreaker over Vettel since he has nine victories so far this season while Vettel has just four with three races remaining, Vettel is still mathematically eligible to win the title, as he is still within 74 points of Hamilton heading into the Mexico Grand Prix.
That said, it would take a miracle for Vettel to even remain eligible to win this season’s championship after the Mexican Grand Prix much less for him to actually win his fifth career Formula One title at the end of this season.
More from Formula One
- Formula 1: Top Red Bull threat identified for 2024
- Formula 1: Why the Max Verstappen retirement obsession?
- Formula 1: Williams ‘mistake’ hints Logan Sargeant’s future
- Formula 1 awaiting key confirmation for 2024 season
- Formula 1: The ‘championship’ Max Verstappen only leads by 3 points
Because of the fact that Lewis Hamilton has clinched the tiebreaker over Sebastian Vettel by winning more races than him this season, Vettel will remain eligible to win this year’s Formula One championship if he ends up within 49 points of Hamilton in the drivers standings after the Mexican Grand Prix and within 24 points of him in the standings after the Brazilian Grand Prix.
But for the sake of this article, let’s focus on how Vettel can remain eligible to win this year’s Formula One championship in the Mexican Grand Prix since that is the next race on the 2017 calendar. Here is how he can do so.
- If Sebastian Vettel would win the race, he would gain 25 points and would need Lewis Hamilton to finish in 6th place or lower so he would gain 7 points or less and be ahead of Vettel by 48 points or less.
- If Sebastian Vettel would finish the race in 2nd place, he would gain 18 points and would need Lewis Hamilton to finish in 10th place or lower so he would gain 1 point or less and be ahead of Vettel by 49 points or less.
Next: Looking back at Lewis Hamilton's record-setting accomplishment
Be sure to tune in live to NBC at 3:00 PM ET on Sunday, October 29th, 2017 for the Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico to find out whether or not Sebastian Vettel will live to fight another race in terms of the 2017 Formula One championship battle with Lewis Hamilton.