Vettel made his debut the same year Räikkönen won his title. But the Finnish driver left F1 the year before Vettel clinched the world championship.Räikkönen’s first F1 team was Sauber, who he drove for in 2001. He quickly dispelled concerns over his lack of racing experience (he was only given a super licence on a provisional basis at the start of the season) and was snapped up by McLaren at the end of the year.
He quickly got on terms with team mate David Coulthard and scored his first F1 win at Sepang in 2003. Although it was his only win that year he was in the running for the championship until the final race.
The following season was a disappointment with the largely uncompetitive and unreliable MP4-19. Its successor was a tremendous improvement – easily the quickest car, but prone to failures. Räikkönen won seven times but ended the year runner-up in the championship again, this time to Fernando Alonso.
Räikkönen jumped ship to Ferrari in 2007 and results came quickly. He won his first race and first championship with the team, overcoming a 17-point deficit in the final two races to snatch the title from the McLaren drivers.
He started his title defence strongly with two wins in the first four races. But team mate Felipe Massa forged ahead and a four-race point-less streak, including crashes in Belgium and Singapore, killed off Räikkönen’s championship hopes.
Vettel made a one-off appearance for BMW in Indianapolis in 2007, picking up a point on his debut as he stood in for the injured Robert Kubica.
A mid-season switch to Toro Rosso led to a full year with the team in 2008. Vettel marked himself out as a man of the future with pole position and victory in a streaming wet race at Monza.
He graduated to Red Bull in 2009 and won four times to finish runner-up in the championship to Jenson Button. Räikkönen, however, won once, at Spa, but was dropped by Ferrari at the end of the year and moved to the World Rally Championship.
Like Räikkönen at McLaren, Vettel came to learn the strengths and weaknesses of cars designed by Adrian Newey: great performance but questionable reliability. His RB6 failed him while leading on several occasions in 2010. But he also lost points with costly mistakes.
However a late-season charge brought him three wins from four starts. Having been fourth in the championship with two races to go he snatched the title from Alonso in the final race.
Which of these drivers should go through to the next round of the Champion of Champions? Vote for which you think was best below and explain who you voted for and why in the comments.
Source: F1 Fanatic
Courtesy: ladora
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