Formula 1: Appreciating Sebastian Vettel's greatness through 199 starts

Love him or hate him, it is impossible to deny the fact that Sebastian Vettel’s first 199 Formula 1 starts have shown just how historically great of a driver he is.

Sebastian Vettel, 30, is set to make his 200th career Formula 1 start on Sunday, April 8th in the Bahrain Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit. Whether you are a fan of his as a driver or you are not is immaterial when it comes to appreciating the greatness he has shown through his first 199 career starts.

Over the first 199 starts of his career, Vettel’s win total trails that of only three other drivers through their first 199 starts. Those three drivers are the only three drivers ahead of him on the all-time wins list.

Vettel is already up to 4th place on the all-time wins list behind only Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton and Alain Prost. With 48 career victories, he could very well past Prost, who won 51 races, on that list for 3rd before the 2018 season comes to a close.

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Vettel’s pole position total is already up to 4th place on the all-time list with 50 poles, and he just claimed his 51st career pole with his pole for tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix. He trails only Hamilton, Schumacher and Ayrton Senna in that category, with the first two having reached 50 poles before their 199th career start. Senna ended up with 65 career poles in just 162 races.

Vettel has finished on the podium in 100 of his 199 career starts, which puts him in 4th place on the all-time podiums list as well behind only Schumacher, Hamilton and Prost, all of whom reached 100 career podium finishes before their 199th start.

In terms of championships, Vettel is tied for 3rd place on the all-time titles list with four. Through 199 career starts, that mark is extremely impressive. Only Prost (197 starts), Schumacher (156 starts) and Juan Manuel Fangio (42 starts), who drove in an era during which seasons consisted of between just seven and nine races, had also secured their fourth career championship before starting 199 races.

It took Vettel only 117 starts to secure those four championships, which he did before the end of his sixth career season as a full-time driver in the sport. Fangio, the five-time champion who retired with 24 career race victories, is the only other driver who has won four titles by the end of his sixth full season in the sport, and he is the only other driver who has won four titles before starting 117 races. But again, he drove in an era during which seasons consisted of between only seven and nine races.

At the age of 26, Vettel had already secured four championships. Only one other driver in the history of the sport had secured more than one title by that age, and that driver, two-time champion Fernando Alonso, is not one of the four drivers who are either tied with him or ahead of him on the all-time titles list.

Next: Who is the greatest Formula 1 driver of all-time?

Regardless of how you feel about Sebastian Vettel, one thing is not up for debate. He is clearly one of the greatest drivers to ever drive in Formula One, and it would appear as though he is just going to get better and better as his career goes on. After all, he is only 30 years old and currently has no plans to retire. While Michael Schumacher is currently the undisputed greatest Formula 1 driver of all-time, Vettel could make that debate quite an interesting one before he retires. In fact, by then, that debate may involve Lewis Hamilton as well.

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Formula 1: Appreciating Sebastian Vettel’s greatness through 199 starts

By Asher Fair | Apr 7, 2018

Love him or hate him, it is impossible to deny the fact that Sebastian Vettel’s first 199 Formula 1 starts have shown just how historically great of a driver he is.