Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@isaacmaffeis?utm_source=instant-images&utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Isaac Maffeis</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Unsplash</a>
Sebastian Vettel did not need a miracle at Buddh on October 27, 2013. He needed fifth place. He took first, and by the time the chequered flag fell, Formula 1 had its fourth straight world champion from the same team and, as it turned out, its last Indian Grand Prix.
What happened at the Buddh International Circuit
Round 16 of the 2013 season ran over 60 laps at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Vettel took pole in his Red Bull-Renault with a 1:24.119, led the race, and won in 1:31:12.187. Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes finished 29.823 seconds behind, with Romain Grosjean’s Lotus third at 39.892 seconds. Felipe Massa, Sergio Pérez and Lewis Hamilton completed the top six, and Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest lap, a 1:27.679, on the very last tour.
It was Vettel’s tenth win of the year and his sixth in a row. Teammate Mark Webber retired on lap 39 with an alternator failure. After the flag, Vettel was reprimanded for not driving straight to parc fermé, and Red Bull was fined €25,000 for failing to instruct him properly. That is a very modest invoice for a title celebration.
The context: a title that was already a formality
Vettel arrived in India with 297 points to Fernando Alonso’s 207, with four races left. The maths was simple enough to fit on a napkin: even if Alonso won in India, Vettel needed only fifth place or better. Alonso could then win every remaining race and still only tie him on 307 points, and Vettel would own the win count tie-break. Pirelli brought its medium and soft compounds, and every car had to use both during the race, so the real question was never the result. It was how early Red Bull could stop worrying about it.
The race itself almost did not happen in the form fans expected. In the week before the event, the promoter, Jaypee Sports International, faced a court hearing over unpaid entertainment taxes from the previous year’s race. A court official confirmed the case would be heard the week after the Grand Prix, which ended talk of cancellation. For one weekend, at least, the calendar problem was postponed.
Why it mattered
The result made Vettel the fourth driver in history with four or more world titles, behind Michael Schumacher, Juan Manuel Fangio and Alain Prost. Formula 1’s own records list him as the youngest quadruple champion ever, at 26 years and 123 days. His four crowns came in consecutive seasons, 2010 through 2013, and Red Bull also clinched its fourth straight constructors’ championship in India.
The title also sat inside a longer run. The India win was his sixth in a row; he won the last three races of the year as well, and nine consecutive victories equalled Alberto Ascari’s record, set 60 years earlier. Prost, whose four-title mark Vettel matched, won his own second championship in far messier fashion, as Backfire Racing’s account of Mansell’s tyre failure in Adelaide shows. Vettel’s version was the opposite: no drama, just a car and driver that were simply too far ahead.
The lasting effect
For the sport, the afternoon marked an ending. It was the last Formula 1 race at Buddh, and the Indian Grand Prix has not returned to the calendar since. A circuit that debuted in 2011 and was supposed to open a vast new market lasted three races.
For Red Bull, it was the peak of an era that did not survive the next rules cycle. Hamilton, who finished sixth in India in a Mercedes, went on to win the 2014 title, and the balance of power shifted to Brackley. Backfire Racing has looked at how Hamilton ended up at Mercedes and at the Vettel-Hamilton team that never was. Vettel never added a fifth title, and his age records are still the benchmark: Kimi Antonelli’s current title chase keeps those numbers in the conversation.
Related Reading on Backfire Racing
- Today in Motorsport History, October 26: Mansell’s Tyre Exploded at 180 mph and Prost Stole the 1986 Title in Adelaide
- Horner’s Memoir Puts a Price on the Vettel-Hamilton Team That Never Was
- How Kimi Antonelli Can Be Crowned F1 World Champion in Austin, and Every Record He Would Break
Lead image: photo by Isaac Maffeis on Unsplash.
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