F1: Vettel Joins Ranks Of Triple Champions

Formula 1

F1: Vettel Joins Ranks Of Triple Champions

Sebastian Vettel is Formula One's youngest three-time champion...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 25, 2012 Sao Paulo (BRA)

Sebastian Vettel reacts passionately after winning his third straight World Championship with a sixth-place finish in Brazil. (Photo: Getty Images)

Sebastian Vettel joined the ranks of triple World Champions in Brazil, becoming not only the youngest champion but the first to win his first three titles consecutively.

After spinning down to last after first-lap contact, Vettel fought back to finish sixth, which was just good enough to beat Fernando Alonso to the title by three points.

“It's difficult to find the right words,” he said of his third straight title. “Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there are only two guys who have done that before. Obviously, you need to be in the right place at the right time, but I also believe that you can create your own luck, and work for what is coming up. I think that one of the great things about Formula One is that you cannot necessarily compare only yourself but you can compare your time, your era if you like to 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago.

“Obviously times have changed but I think they will keep changing because that's what we do. I think if you look around the world, there are a lot of things that have changed. People around the world learn not only in Formula One and in every other sport but also in everyday life. I don't know what to say.

“We are in Sao Paulo here, the place where Ayrton Senna was born and came from and the place where he was buried. To come here and win the championship for the third time, I don't really know what to say. I have to say a big thanks to everyone in the team. Of course, this sounds like a bit of a standard phrase. Sometimes we get criticized for bringing up standard phrases like that, but I really feel that as one of the guys in the team, I don't feel more important or less important.”

Vettel made it clear that the championship wasn’t just about one race.

“What we achieved today is not what happened today in the race,” said the Red Bull driver. It's what we've been working for since I really joined the team. Together, everyone here at the track, back at the factory, it's a massive amount of work getting done throughout the whole year. Now, tomorrow the season is over and the guys are already flat out for the last couple of weeks preparing RB9 and next year. You cannot afford to lift.”

Vettel said he never gave up during what was a very difficult afternoon.

“I never thought it was game over, number one because I kept believing, and number two because, as a fact, I didn't know where I was for most of the time. Obviously I saw which position I was in on the pit board, but I didn't know where Fernando was.

“To make out whether it was enough or not, I needed to know where he was, but that was not the main focus for the whole race. With the amount of difficulties I mentioned, I think we had our hands full to keep the car on the track. It was very, very difficult to drive the car.

“I was very aggressive and snapping quite a lot, so I lost the rears many times, but fortunately stayed on track most of the time. It was a pleasure but it was a lot of work. I felt happier in intermediate conditions because I could make up by choosing different lines than the guys I was racing and benefitting from that, because in dry conditions we lost a lot down the straights.

“I think everyone's exit speed, for example, in dry conditions was fairly similar, because even if you were two, three kilometres per hour quicker, it's a lot in the dry, but the car was so draggy down the straights that we had no chance. I think you saw that after the restart: the train in front was gone and I was behind, and I was nearly eaten up by Kamui (Kobayashi) and Mark (Webber) around the outside. We lost a lot in the dry, and in the wet we could make up for it.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.