New champion Sebastian Vettel has made the sort of seismic immediate impact on Formula 1 that only the true greats achieve.
The youngest ever points-scorer on his F1 debut in mid-2007, the German then pulled off one of the most sensational upsets in Formula 1 history when he and Toro Rosso upstaged the big teams to win from pole in the wet 2008 Italian Grand Prix.
In the two years since his inevitable promotion to the senior Red Bull team, he has swept to 14 poles, nine wins and become the youngest ever world champion by coming from behind to snatch the astoundingly-close 2010 crown.
The unnerving element for his rivals is that Vettel still had plenty of rough edges even last year, and still won the championship, so is set to get better and better – particularly now he has the confidence boost of a maiden title under his belt.
With at least a decade in F1 surely still ahead of him, he may even challenge his famous countryman Michael Schumacher’s records before he’s finished.
F1 career log
At the age of just 19, Vettel became BMW’s Friday tester when Robert Kubica was called up to the race team in August 2006, and then got his own race chance at Indianapolis the following summer following Kubica’s violent Montreal crash.
Vettel didn’t waste the opportunity – flying in practice and recovering from a first corner error to finish eighth.
A month later, he was back on the grid when Toro Rosso lost patience with Scott Speed.
After a few middling races, Vettel showed his true ability by running an amazing third in the wet in Japan...until he ploughed into Mark Webber behind the safety car.
That error left Vettel distraught, but he atoned with a sublime drive to fourth at the very next race in Shanghai.
A frustrating start to 2008 saw Vettel involved in a string of first-lap collisions, but once Toro Rosso introduced its new car in Monaco, he never looked back, even becoming a sensational winner at a sodden Monza.
Promoted to Red Bull for 2009, he was in the thick of the title fight from the outset, but lost costly early points with errors and while his team caught up with Brawn’s double diffuser advantage.
He still dominated in China, Britain, Japan and Abu Dhabi, and outscored all rivals from Silverstone onwards.
That pace was carried into 2010, and for much of the season Vettel was comfortably the fastest man, romping to pole after pole.
But Red Bull’s fragility and Vettel’s errors of judgement cost him countless points.
He went into the final rounds as a long-shot contender – but blitzing the field in the last two races allowed him to take the points lead at last when it really mattered and become world champion.
Formative years
Vettel had the unusual honour of being a protégé of two F1 teams while still in his teens.
He was added to Red Bull’s roster of rising stars before he started car racing and BMW then also took him under its wing after he claimed an astonishing 18 wins from 20 races in the 2004 German Formula BMW Championship.
A Formula 3 Euro Series campaign followed, with a series of rookie podiums earning him title favourite status – for 2006.
But it didn’t quite work out as planned, as Vettel narrowly lost the championship to team-mate Paul di Resta.
His packed racing diary was held responsible, for by mid-season he was also dabbling with the World Series by Renault and F1 testing.
Vettel pulled off a double WSR win on his debut, then nearly lost a finger in a massive accident in the following round at Spa.
If this distracting whirlwind of a schedule cost Vettel the F3 title it mattered little, for his impressive performances in front of the F1 paddock were more important for his career.
His intention for 2007 was to claim the WSR title, but F1 intervened once again.
He had established a comfortable championship lead in the Renault series by mid-season, before being summoned by Toro Rosso.
Strengths: Blistering natural pace, capable of crushing the opposition from the front; intelligence.
Weaknesses: Even in his title-winning year he was still too prone to mistakes and errors of judgement; tends to get in a mess if he has to fight back through the field.
Most likely to: Charge to pole and dominate from lights to flag.
Career highlight: Storming to the 2010 title against the odds.
Lowest ebb: Slamming his Toro Rosso into Webber’s Red Bull as they ran third and second behind the safety car at Fuji in 2007.
Goals for 2011: Win another world championship, in a more efficient way than his first.