To compete in Formula 1 you have to be the best of the best. And one of the best is German🇩🇪 driver Sebastian Vettel. As of March 12 2019 Vettel has 52 grand prix victories 111 podiums and 55 pole positions in 219 starts. He currently races for Ferrari and won 4 titles in a row for Red Bull. He will already be known as one of the greats but could he have started his streak in 2009? That is the question we answer today. Sebastian got his F1 career started as an unknown he got his big break by subbing for an injured Robert Kubica 🇵🇱 at the USA grand prix in 2007, he'd finish 2007 with Scuderia Toro Rosso to replace sacked Scott Speed🇺🇸 and would get his 1st win the next year at Italy🇮🇹 he would then receive a promotion if you will by being able to race for Red Bull racing alongside Mark Webber🇦🇺. The year would bring many unknowns with a new team Brawn GP who are the remains of Honda, rule changes, and new cars saw last year's championship favorites McLaren and Ferrari appearing to struggle at least for qualifying pace. This opened the door for Sebastian Vettel to put his Red Bull 3rd on the starting grid and the German admitted that it was a little bit surprising. Renault was also surprised with their qualifying as Fernando Alonso🇪🇸 and Nelson Piquet Jr🇧🇷 starting 10th and 14th. Toyota's Jarno Trulli🇮🇹 and Timo Glock would start from the pit lane as the FIA did not like their rear wings. So this first race it's time to see what everyone has to start the 2009 world championship. Well Sebastian would end the 1st lap 2nd after a really rough start from Rubens Barrichello🇧🇷 would leave the Brazilian in 7th but Jenson Button🇬🇧 is running away with it as he is 4 and a half seconds clear of Sebastian Vettel. Rubens would make contact with Mark Webber causing a first corner wreck. Nick Heidfeld🇩🇪 and Adrian Sutil 🇩🇪is involved as well as Hekki Kovalainen🇫🇮 the Finn would be forced to retire as everyone else was able to rejoin the race after repairs. Vettel would begin to close on Button at lap 10 as Kimi Raikkonen🇫🇮 would pit for tires and fuel followed by Massa🇧🇷 and Hamilton🇬🇧 a lap later. Lap 13 sees Robert Kubica pit for fresh tires and fuel. Vettel pits 3 laps later trying to undercut Jenson Button. But Kazuki Nakajima🇯🇵 crashes coming out of turn 4 putting the Japanese driver out of the race for AT&T Williams. Both Brawn cars pit and the saftey car comes out afterwards. Lap 24 as the race gets back underway and Vettel is all over Jenson Button and Nelson Piquet is off into turn 1 and out of the race from a brake faliure. Button would pull away from the German though. He pits for the last time of the race with 13 laps to go followed by Button a lap later. 8 laps to go Vettel is 1.677 seconds behind Jenson and could really finish off a great drive with a victory by chasing and passing that Brawn Mercedes car. But Kubica is all over Sebastian with 3 laps to go and into turn 3 Vettel and Kubica make contact and Sebastian's front wing is gone. Does he dare stay out for the last 3 laps or pit? Well we won't find out as he crahes into turn 5. If it were up to the German he'd tough it out to the checkered flag but due to the fact his car was severely damaged he'd be disqualified completing the race so he'd pull over with a lap to go under the saftey car. A bad break for he and Kubica who had a podium and potential win ruined from their collision. All of this so far is on 1 race and golly it was pretty intense and full of drama...... Well maybe more than what McLaren would want

It turns out that McLaren was paranoid after last year's Belgium grand prix when Lewis Hamilton lost his win and got demoted to 3rd for leaving the track and gaining a advantage by the stewards. So when Jarno Trulli went off the reigning world champion felt the need to tell his team and ask for what to do. Jarno went into the grass at the second to last turn and Hamilton paseed him, Jarno was asked by his engineer about what happened cause he was 3rd and now he's 4th and when the Italian explained his side of the story Toyota thought Hamilton straight up passed him under yellow flag conditions. But the thing is Trulli went OFF the track. Toyota misunderstood Trulli's explanation. And so did Mclaren team manager who told Lewis's engineer to let Trulli by trying to keep from getting penalized but that was fair game. If someone goes off the track and doesn't go Saftey car speed it is fair game. So Trulli after being let through slowed down to in a way say to Hamilton "Why did you do that? This position is yours." But Hamilton did let him pass and Trulli trying to ensure he doesn't get in trouble with the FIA explains that he tried to give the place to Hamilton but the Brit never overtook him. McLaren team manager Dave Ryan felt guilty because his paranoia got the best of him and cost Hamilton a podium so he tried to make up for it by throwing Jarno Trulli under the bus and wanted Hamilton to back him up which briefly worked but the FIA found out the truth so Dave loses his job and Hamilton is disqualified from the Australian grand prix. So Lewis felt the need to explain and apologize to everyone for his actions. So after that the British team would start 12th and 14th for Hamilton and Kovalainen. While Ferrari's Felipe Massa will start 16th. A tough qualifying for last year's top 2 constructors. Meanwhile Sebastian Vettel would qualify 3rd but would get demoted to 13th for his crash with Kubica in Australia for the Malaysian🇲🇾 grand prix. The weather would be on everyone's mind as around them the skies have dark clouds looming and when it rains in Malaysia it poors. The track remains dry for the start strong starts from William's Nico Rosberg🇩🇪 who ends the first lap with the lead after starting 4th and Renault's Fernando Alonso who climbed from 9th to 4th. Unfortunately can't say the same for McLaren's Hekki Kovalainen who spins in the gravel ending his race or Robert Kubica who complained about a strange engine noise well unfortunately for his BMW Sauber it was an engine problem. Vettel has made his way up to 10th at lap 4 and gets past compatriot Heidfeld at lap 8. The rain is expected to appear soon as the clouds seemed to get darker meanwhile Rosberg leads Jarno Trulli by 2.8 seconds Lap 13 comes and Vettel pits for fuel and tires followed by countryman Nico Rosberg 2 laps later. Lap 18 comes and Kimi Raikkonen pits for the full wet tyres while the track is still DRY. Ferrari is gambling on that the rain will hit soon, well.....not soon enough cause he is over 20 seconds off the pace. Lap 21 and it's starting to rain and Alonso goes off the track but is able to continue. Now is the time to pit for wet weather tires and EVERYONE pits for full wets except for the Toyota Timo Glock🇩🇪. It may not be heavy rain but it is expected as everyone is tiptoeing around the track. Remember Raikkonen who pitted for full wets first? Well he got the rain he wanted but the Finn would later say over the radio "My tires are completely destroyed." Lap 24 comes and it appears the rain is beginning to get heavier and Vettel in another zip code as well as his teammate Mark Webber, Glock is flying to as he is up to 6th place as Vettel for intermediates as well as Rosberg and Hamilton. Button leads as we are halfway through the race. Rubens Barrichello and Jarno Trulli pit for intermediates as well after seeing Glock's pace as well as Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima🇯🇵. Jenson then get inters the next lap and Mark Webber to and things are getting good as Glock is now being chased by Jenson Button and now the German pits for full wets, good god now EVERYONE pits for full wets. What is the right tire to be on????? Everyone first pits for wets, Glock flys on inters, everyone gets inters while Timo leads, Timo Glock then pits for full wets, then everyone pits for full wets which seem to be the good tire now while Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella🇮🇹 spins on inters which forces him to retire! Man this is enough to make your head spin for race teams. This is so intense and AMAZING for racing fans. Noone knows what is going to happen! And Sebastian Vettel is out off the race cause he spun off the track on inters! Hamilton spins, Heidfeld spins, Fisichella spins and they all retire from the race! Sebastian Bourdais spun as well! The Frenchman also said on the radio that the rain is too much and suggested that the race should be stopped. Sebastian Buemi🇨🇭 is out now! The saftey car comes out at lap 33 and the red flag. Now the race is officially over cause of the impending darkness coming from running out of daylight. Jenson Button has won the race but the stewards will go to lap 31 for the final results so Heidfeld 2nd Glock 3rd Trulli 4th Barrichello 5th Webber 6th Lewis Hamilton 7th and all Nico Rosberg has to show for leading 15 laps is 8th place. Everyone also gets half points because we did not get to the two thirds mark of the grand prix so for Vettel he lost 5 points not 10. But the german needs to be able to score points it's obvious he has the talent and speed to do it he just needs to finish the job. Well for round 3 at China🇨🇳 Sebastian Vettel puts his Red Bull on pole with Alonso's Renault alongside and Mark Webber in the other Red Bull 3rd. Jenson Button will start 5th. Well behind the saftey car cause race day has heavy rain. At least it isn't like Malaysia even though Massa and Sutil went wide at turn 16. Lap 8 and the saftey car comes in and Vettel leads Webber and Button. Sebastian Buemi goes wide at turn 16 trying to get by Raikkonen at lap 9. Hamilton goes wide a lap later at turn 16 appears to be the most trouble spot on the circuit. Well Hamilton might disagree at lap 11 he spins at turn 10. Turn 14 sees Glock and Heidfeld collide sending Nick around at lap 13. Webber pits and Sebastian covers him. Trulli would lose his rear wing putting him out of the race from getting hit by Robert Kubica and now the saftey car is out. Sebastian Buemi damaged his front wing from hitting Sebastian Vettel so how damaged is the German's car? It is better than Massa's Ferrari the Brazilian retires on the backstretch for an electrical problem. The saftey car comes in as Sebastian Bourdais spins just before the green flag. Conditions are still treacherous. Kazuki Nakajima🇯🇵 went wide at turn 9 and 10 Glock went really wide in turn 1, and Piquet spins at turn 4. Webber and Button went iff at turn 16 a couple of times battling for 2nd. Bourdais would spin again at turn 10 with 20 laps to go as Vettel would pit for tires and fuel a lap later. Fernando Alonso would spin at turn 13. Vettel now with 17 is trying to get by Jenson Button while Mark Webber pits. 15 laps to go Rosberg pits for intermediates so is he about to pull a Timo Glock like Malaysia and seem like he's in another race? Well when Button pits he gets full wets the next lap. Piquet's bad day continues as he spins trying to pit, Hamilton lose s a plce to his teammate Kovalainen with 10 laps to go by going wide at turn 10. Rosberg would lose control of his car almost in a straight line the German would pit for full wets so that strategy of being on inters failed as Hamilton spins at turn 16. Adrian Sutil's great drive would end with 6 laps to as he'd lose control of his car and crash out of the race. But through all of the chaos after 2 DNFs from a crash at Australia and spinning off at Malaysia Sebastian Vettel will win the Chinese grand prix to claim Red Bull's first grand prix and Red Bull's first ever 1-2. Attaboy for McLaren who don't have that competitive of a car finishing 5th and 6th with Kovalainen and Hamilton and Sebastian Buemi 8th for Toro Rosso. Well we already have over 2239 words at this point. At this rate I'll have to split this episode in 2 parts so I will sum up the next 4 races which happen at Bahrain🇧🇭, Catalunya in Spain🇪🇸, Monaco🇮🇩, and Turkey🇹🇷 They were all pretty good for Sebastian Vettel with 2 podiums at Bahrain and Turkey, 4th at Spain and the only bad spot at Monaco finishing 18th after hitting the turn 1 wall damaging the rear of his car. You'd think he'd be in ok shape in the championship right? Well not when the championship leader Jenson Button wins 6 of the 7 races. This left the German 3rd in points 32 behind Jenson. If Vettel was to win the championship he'd need to score some wins and maybe some bad luck from Brawn. Well in Britain🇬🇧 Vettel would get the pole and hold the lead at the start and would pull away at the pace of a second a lap over the rest of the field. He'd only lose the lead temporary to Mark Webber during 2nd pitstops but besides that it was a dominanting weekend for Sebastian Vettel pole position, fastest lap, and the race win. Meanwhile Button would miss out on a podium for the first time from a rough start the Brit would only get back up to 6th. It was a nice boost to go to Germany's🇩🇪 Nurburgring for the German grand prix the peak of this season race number 9 out of 17. What wasn't so peak is Vettel's start he would fall back to 6th after starting 4th. But he would still be fighting back at lap 9 Vettel tried to get by Massa in the last chicane but couldn't make the long way around work. He would be stuck behind him and others but after pitstops he would jump Hekki Kovalainen, Felipe Massa, Jenson Button who was on a 3 stop strategy, and Rubens Barachello was ahead so he got his strategy changed until a problem with the fuel rig allowed Vettel to get ahead of him as well to finish 2nd behind Mark Webber who had a drive through penalty for the slight contact he made with Rubens Barrichello at the start gets his first career win in F1. Honorable mentions go to Massa and Ferrari who score their first podium of the year and Nico Rosberg who got his Williams to 4th after starting 15th. Anyway things were going pretty good for Red Bull Vettel is now 21 points behind Jenson Button, his teammate now has won a race, and a new member of their junior team unfortunately this meant a current member had to go and that was Sebastian Bourdais. The Frenchman seemed to be struggling with his car and only scored 2 points in the year so they decided to replace him with Jamie Algersuari🇪🇸 even though he would eventually go on to not score any points this year he was still a F1 driver now but that is the last of their concerns along with every F1 fan and all of those in the paddock. In qualifying for the Hungarian🇭🇺 grand prix. Midway through Q2 Rubens Barrichello was trying to make it into Q3 and going into the 3rd turn parts of his rear suspension began to come apart. It turns out it was a failure of a bolt that holds the spring and damper assembly together causing the spring to fall out and hit his compatriot Felipe Massa who was on a run to make sure he'd advance to the final qualifying round but he hit the spring that was bouncing on the track and made contact over his left eye knocking him unconscious temporary. F2 driver Henry Surtees🇬🇧 suffered a similar harsher accident in a race at Brands Hatch the Brit hit a wheel that came off of a wrecked car killing him at the moment of contact. But thankfully Felipe didn't suffer the same fate as he successfully went through emergency surgery and is recovering at his home but unfortunately that is the end of Felipe Massa's season. But everyone has him on his mind but they have a job to do which is race. He'd want F1 to live on. Anyway qualifying was already freakish enough with the Massa accident but the time scoring system temporarily went out confusing everyone. But in the end it left Sebastian Vettel 2nd behind Fernando Alonso who gets his first pole since 2007. Race day came and it did not start well for Vettel. Raikkonen and Hamilton were on the attack into the first turn but out of said turn it was 4 wide with Webber, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Vettel makes slight contact with Kimi getting his Red Bull loose leaving the German 7th. Sebastian would be stuck behind Hekki Kovalainen for the first stint of the race but during pitstops he'd fall further back behind the McLaren until a suspension problem forced him to retire his Red Bull. That wasn't so nice especially seing Fernando Alonso's right front wheel come off after Renault didn't get it on tight therefore it was an unsafe release but noone was hurt thankfully after the last 7 days with wheels coming off and hitting drivers in the head. But what was nice to see was Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen get 2nd and Lewis Hamilton get his first win of the year for McLaren after their rough half of the year. And speaking of rough Renault would be banned from the next race which turned into a fine after appeal. But the boss of Renault Flavio Briatore did not approve of Nelson Piquet Jr anymore, after Alonso retired he and Piquet's trainer was spotted leaving the track with 6 laps to go. It seemed like it was a jab at the Brazilian who was still racing to finish 12th. But he would officially be replaced by GP2 driver Romain Grosjean🇫🇷 from the European🇪🇺 grand prix onwards which is the next race which took place in Valencia Spain🇪🇸. Vettel would start 4th ahead of Jenson Button. But later on Button would fall to 9th while Vettel is 5th. Things would change for the worse when a fuel rig problem meant Sebastian got no fuel in his Red Bull so a chance for a podium was snatched away but it would not matter because his engine would let him down once again. Brawn won the race but Sebastian is thankful it wasn't Button who finished 7th once again but for the first time in 84 races since 2004 Rubens Barrichello will see the checkered flag as a grand prix winner! And that was something everyone was either wanting or glad to see. But Vettel wouldn't be so glad to see that he is 25 points behind Button in 4th place in the championship standings. With 6 races to go the reliability for Red Bull needs to get better as Vettel has nearly used all the engines he is allowed to use without taking grid penalties. This caused him to sit out first practice at Belgium🇧🇪. He would qualify 8th for the race and would remain there after the start but crucially is still in the race unlike championship leader Jenson Button who was involved in a 4 car wreck. This could be a opportunity for Vettel to close the gap in the championship. He immediately would get past Nico Rosberg on the restart and jump Timo Glock because Toyota had a fuel rig problem, Nick Heidfeld after his first stop as well as Mark Webber who had a drive through penalty for getting released unsafely into Heidfeld's path. Sebastian would also get past Robert Kubica after the 2nd pitstop to finish 3rd behind Giancarlo Fisichella who finishes 2nd to mark a special occasion for Force India to get their first ever points in Formula 1 by getting their first podium behind Kimi Raikkonen who wins for Ferrari to get his 4th win at Belgium but the first win for Ferrari for what is a rough year for the Italian team. Speaking of Italy it's time for the Italian🇮🇹 grand prix. But Sebastian Vettel's time in qualifying wasn't good a 1:25:180 puts his Red Bull 9th. But after the first lap he is side by side with Fernando Alonso on the frontstretch and he gets past the Renualt into turns 1 and 2 but Alonso is slipstreaming hin into the next chicane and gets back past Vettel and the German gets loose and he loses another to the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica and nearly loses out to Ferrari new boy Giancarlo Fisichella. The driver who filled his seat at Force India is making his F1 return is his fellow countrymen Vitantonio Liuzzi🇮🇹. Unfortunately he'd later retire with a transmission faliure. Sebastian would get past Kubica not with a pass or pitstop but because the Polish driver had damage on the front wing from colliding with Mark Webber on the first lap and the FIA didn't want to risk another incident that sidelined and nearly killed Felipe Massa in Hungary so they gave him the black and orange flag meaning that he had a dangerous problem and has to pit. But he would DNF from the race laps later due to an oil leak. Kubica and a last lap crash from Lewis Hamilton would be the only positions that Sebastian Vettel would gain as he would finish a miserable 8th. It was a disappointing race at Monza for Red Bull. They knew they wouldn't be as competitive as they want but this was a new level. Especially when Jenson Button the guy he is trying to catch in the title race finishes 2nd which leaves him 26 points behind with 4 races remaining. The next race at Singapore🇸🇬 would be very controversial not because of this year's race but last year's which many thought might have potentially played a huge role in the 2008 championship.

It turns out that Piquet was told by Flavio that if he wanted to keep his seat in F1 that he would do what he was told. He kept it until Hungary that year so when he got fired that was the last straw so he exposed Flavio for the incident. First Briatore and Symonds denied allegations and were going to pursue legal allegations towards the Brazilian for blackmailing the team but the cat is out of the bag now that they did it. And now what would have happened had this incident never happen in the race is unknown. But what was known is the struggle of Jenson Button who starts 11th and Sebastian Vettel who qualified who needed every point he can gain on the leader of the championship. He would lose 2 points after the start when Nico Rosberg put his Williams ahead of Sebastian. Vettel would pit on lap 17 for his fuel and tires. Nico Rosberg would have to serve a drive through penalty for crossing the white line in the pit exit but it would be complicated as the safety car would make its first appearance when Adrian Sutil trier to make a move on Jamie Algersuari but lost the back end of his Force India and while he was trying to straighten his car came inti the path of Nick Heidfeld forcing the BMW Sauber to retire while littering debris all over the track. After Rosberg served his penalty now is all over the rear wing of Lewis Hamilton. He's giving it everything trying to pass Hamilton but his right mirror flew off so hopefully he won't need it for the rest of the race. He would put with 22 laps to go. But was he pushing too hard? Car number 15 which is Sebastian Vettel gets a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane! And to add insult to injury he has lost bits of his diffuser on the turn 3 curbs! He would finish 4th after losing out on a podium and potential win. Vettel also only gained 1 point on Jenson Button because of this but hey Fernando Alonso is on yhe podium for Renault and THIS time nobody manufactured, fixed, rigged whatever you want to call it he got a podium with NO controversy. And Timo Glock gets a 2nd place good work for the German but his compatriot isn't doing so good in the championship 25 points behind with 3 races to go. Heading to Japan🇯🇵 it seemed like it slipped away. Sebastian Vettel would need a miracle to stay in the title fight. Well he would need to fight an eventful qualifying not because of weather but because of wrecks by others because most of the weekend was wet. In Q1 Sebastian Buemi and Hekki Kovalainen had separate incidents but would survive. Q2 Jamie Algersuari would wreck in the middle sector and Timo Glock would wreck in the last corner causing the German back pains and a cut leg which would unfortunately ended his season and would be replaced by Kamui Kobayashi🇯🇵. But Sebastian Buemi would litter debris on the track after losing his front wing against the wall. Fernando Alonso, Adrian Sutil, Rubens Barachello, and crucially Jenson Button would all get penalties for ignoring yellow flags. Then in Q3 Hekki Kovalainen would wreck in the same place Algersuari did. But through it all Vettel puts his Red Bull on pole position and the championship leader is 10th after serving his penalty in qualifying. In the race Vettel would be supreme at the start and when Lewis Hamilton or anyone challenged him he would just pull away. The only time he would have company at the front is when Jamie Algersuari crashed heavily out of 130R bringing out the saftey car with 9 laps to go. With 4 laps remaining the race would get back going with Sebastian Vettel winning and his championship rival 8th. The miracle Vettel needed has come heading to Brazil🇧🇷 16 points behind Jenson Button. Still Sebastian is going to need a bit of luck on his side but hope was still in the air. Vettel would say that it isn't over until the last lap in the last race like Kimi Raikkonen showed in 2007 by snatching the title right under McLaren's nose. After the Japanese grand prix Vettel would also say as nice as it would be to have more races that Red Bull are going to fight until the end. He'd have to do a lot of fighting race day from a 16th place qualifying. He would start 15th in the race because Vitantonio Liuzzi changed his gearbox so that is one extra spot he doesn't have to work for. Vettel however would work hard at the start and would get up to 11th after a wreck from Adrian Sutil, Jarno Trulli, and Fernando Alonso. Also Kimi Raikkonen damages his front wing against Mark Webber so when the saftey car came out he pitted to get it changed things got heayed between Trulli and Sutil. Jarno came running towards Adrian and was furious about the wreck and in the pitlane McLaren let Hekki Kovalainen go out too early so the Finn left with the fuel rig still attached spilling fuel in front of Kimi Raikkonen and caught his car on fire briefly but thankfully noone got hurt and they are still in the race. When the race restarted Sebastian Vettel didn't waste any time getting past Algersuari and coming on the front stretch the next lap he gets past Romain Grosjean into 9th place trying to stay with Jenson Button who is also on the move in 7th place. Knowing that he goes after Kazuki Nakajima's Williams and nearly loses his car heading into turn 5 the German is giving it everything he has to keep his championship bid together. The race begins to settle down and Button is being held up by the Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi while Vettel is being held up by the Toyota powered Williams driven by Kazuki Nakajima. Sebastian knows that he needs to get past to go for the win to have any chance whatsoever to stay in the championship fight. Lap 21 Barrichello comes out of the pits so Vettel uses the slipstream and goes the long way around into turn 5 moving him up a place even though he is yet to pit. The Red Bull does so with 34 laps to go for his first stop but a delay on the left front would put him behind Jenson Button in 7th. Things would not change for Vettel so much in this stint. 15 to go Vettel pits for his last stop and was able to jump his championship rival and Kimi Raikkonen. He would also gain another place when Rubens Barrichello had to pit from a puncture. But thats how the race would end giving Jenson Button the championship. However, that didn't stop him from ending the season on a high note in Abu Dhabi🇦🇪 by going out to win the race officially ending the season 2nd in the points 11 behind Jenson Button. Sebastian Vettel would go on to win 4 straight championships with Red Bull after 2009 but still it could make you wonder "What if he never had car issues in Hungary or Valencia?" "What if he had never wrecked in Australia, Malaysia, or Monaco?" After 2009 a legend was formed but still for Sebastian Vettel many look back at that year and wonder what might have been for him?