Germany’s Sebastian Vettel won his third successive Formula One title for Red Bull at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix on October 28, 2012. He became the sport’s youngest triple champion at the age of 25 in his 101st race. The 2012 season demonstrated that the best way to get ahead in F1, make sure you have a good engineer in your team. Arguably, there is no better engineer in the sport than Adrian Newey.
The Autódromo José Carlos Pace (Interlagos) in Sao Paulo is a 15-turn circuit most notable for its counterclockwise direction, hilly terrain, a long uphill straight and several linked medium-speed corners.
Sebastian Vettel found himself spinning around on the track just after the start of the race, watching helplessly as other cars whizzed past him. His Formula One title hopes seemed to be whizzing away with them. Vettel shook off the first-lap crash, but he had to hustle to fight his way through the field from the back of the grid. It was only the start of Vettel’s problems in what he called the toughest race of his career. ‘’Everything that could go wrong went wrong,’’ he said. But he overcame each challenge and came away able to protect his lead over challenger Fernando Alonso and become F1’s youngest three-time champion.
Jenson Button of McLaren won the race at Autódromo José Carlos Pace with Alonso second and Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa third. Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, F1’s most successful driver, finished seventh in his final race after 19 seasons. But they were all overshadowed by Vettel, who had to overcome a poor start, the early crash, a damaged car, a broken radio, a botched pit stop and pouring rain. ‘’Just look at the stuff that went wrong … It was for sure the toughest race,’’ Vettel said. ‘’We kept believing. It was never game over.’’
Vettel appeared in big trouble shortly after the start of the race when he was bumped and spun around. He survived the first-lap collision but dropped to last place before he could turn his car around and begin a difficult pursuit. He steadily worked his way up the field despite a slightly damaged car and no radio communication. Luckily, it was not significant damage, and he began making his way back to the front, easily passing the slower cars near the end of the pack. He was already sixth by lap 15, and by the 24th lap the Red Bull racer had clawed his way back to fifth place.
It rained on and off throughout the race, making conditions difficult and forcing drivers to come in and out of the pits several times.
Red Bull lost time while putting the wet tires on Vettel’s car in the rain, dropping him to eleventh place while Alonso moved into third. But after all cars had pitted, Vettel was in sixth place, enough to keep the title. Alonso moved to second after passing Massa, but he needed Vettel to drop a few more spots. Vettel needed to finish fourth or better to clinch the title regardless of Alonso’s result.
Vettel fought off the feisty Fernando Alonso to capture the drivers’ title and join an elite band of Formula One world champions. The Spaniard would have had a chance to overtake the German by just finishing up on the podium. Alonso looked to have the advantage after a superb start and the chaotic first lap, but in the end he couldn’t erase Vettel’s 13-point lead in the standings.
While the race was filled with drama and potentially title-deciding swings, it had an anticlimactic finish behind the safety car after Paul Di Resta crashed just before the final lap. Resta’s crash meant all Vettel had to do was simply cruise safely toward the title.
‘’You are the man, you are a triple world champion,’’ a team official told Vettel on the radio after he crossed the line, without being able to listen to the driver’s response. After the race, Vettel said: “It’s difficult to find the right words. ’It’s unbelievable. I’m still full of adrenaline. It was an incredible race.’’
The Brazilian Grand Prix race confirmed Vettel as the first driver with three titles in a row since Schumacher won five straight from 2000-04 and just the ninth driver in the sport’s 62-year history to win three world titles. Vettel is now chasing after Frenchman Alain Prost, who won four drivers’ titles. The only other driver to win at least three consecutive championships was Juan Manuel Fangio from 1954-57. Vettel aims to join Prost with four drivers’ titles, this year. After that five-time winner Fangio and Schumacher’s magnificent seven titles are all that are ahead of him in his quest for total greatness.
Infiniti + Red Bull Racing
After two hugely successful years as partners on the Formula One racetrack, Infiniti and Red Bull Racing are taking things to the next level.
In a new, enhanced partnership, the team will be renamed INFINITI RED BULL RACING. Infiniti will become a major technical partner beginning with the 2013 Formula One season. The partnership sees Infiniti reunited with the reigning FIA Formula One Constructors’ World Champions in the world’s most prestigious motorsports series. Starting in 2013 and initially carrying through the end of the 2016 season, the partnership will see a number of new technology initiatives.
Adrian Newey, Red Bull Racing’s Chief Technical Officer, welcomes the long-term nature of the agreement: “Formula One presents immense design and engineering challenges on a daily basis. Having a committed technical partner like Infiniti gives us a great platform for working together on technical projects, such as the Energy Recovery systems for the 2014 season.”