Sebastian Vettel

The 2010 season has been a momentous one for Sebastian Vettel, who re-wrote the record books in Abu Dhabi recently by becoming the youngest Formula 1 world champion in the sport's history.

Key to the Red Bull driver's title success was his strong end to the season while his rivals Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button fell short of what was needed.

His victories in both the Brazilian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix - the latter from pole position - not only helped him overturn what had been a 25-point deficit to Alonso, but also made him November's EDGE Performer of the Month.

It is Vettel's third such award of the year, the German having also been the top performer in the Castrol Rankings in April and October. During that time he has sat in the number one position for the last 36 weeks and will finish the year there as well.

The only driver who could get close to Vettel's score during November was NASCAR ace Carl Edwards, who won two of the month's three Sprint Cup races in his Roush Fenway Ford.

His winning margin was only a slight one over Sebastien Loeb, who wrapped up his seventh World Rally Championship title in October. Hamilton, Sebastien Loeb and Greg Biffle completed the top five while Ferrari driver Alonso was only eighth.

Ranking Year

After winning a BMW scholarship fund, Vettel made his race debut in Formula BMW Germany in 2003 and immediately showed his talent by winning on only his third start at Adria.

He won four more times that year on his way to the runner-up spot in the championship, and went one better the following season as he won 18 of the 20 races and dominated the series.

For 2005 he moved up to the F3 Euro Series and won the Rookie of the Year title in his first season. He also had his first taste of F1 machinery at the age of 18 as he tested for Williams - his prize for winning the FBMW crown in his homeland.

It was the following season though in which he truly arrived on the international scene, with his runner-up spot in the F3 Euro Series and two wins from three races in the World Series by Renault almost becoming an afterthought.

This was because after Jacques Villeneuve's sacking from the BMW Sauber F1 squad and Robert Kubica's promotion to a race seat as a result, Vettel was named as the team's official test driver from the Turkish Grand Prix onwards.

With F1 rules allowing test drivers to compete in Friday practice sessions at grands prix, Vettel was able to gain crucial mileage during the latter half of the year and became the youngest man to top an official F1 session in Turkey.

He made his F1 race debut at Indianapolis the following year in place of Kubica, who had been injured the previous week in an horrific shunt in Canada, and surprised the establishment by qualifying seventh and finishing eighth - becoming the youngest points scorer in World Championship history in the process.

All the while, he remained under a Red Bull management contract, its young driver co-ordinator Helmut Marko clearly spotting his potential from an early age.

Following the sacking of Scott Speed from Red Bull's B-team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, Vettel was given a race seat for the final seven races of the season.

Fourth place in a wet/dry Chinese Grand Prix came his way and helped him secure a full-time F1 race seat with the team for '08.

The baby-faced assassin became the youngest winner in F1 history when he triumphed from pole at that year's Italian Grand Prix and continued his imperious rise the following season as he was moved to Red Bull Racing.

He took the team's first GP win in China last year and finished second in the World Championship behind Jenson Button.

His start to the 2010 season was even more impressive, with three pole positions from four races and victory in Malaysia, leading most to believe he would run away with the title.

The year did not quite pan out like that though. His team-mate Webber proved more of a rival than anticipated, leading to the inevitable frictions between the two and causing Vettel to make mistakes under pressure, such as in Turkey and Belgium, when potentially 37 points became zero.

Despite this, nobody has won more races than Vettel this year, his five GP victories bringing him back into contention during the latter stages of the season and eventually propelling him to the title. Plus, his tally of 10 pole positions is double what anyone else in F1 managed.

Add to that his leading of 382 laps during the season (65 more than Webber and more than twice as many as Alonso or Hamilton) and a picture of dominance, which was reflected more in the Castrol Rankings than in the World Championship, begins to emerge.

Just one month remains in 2010 and with the F1 season now over, it will not be Vettel winning the EDGE Performer of the Month for December. The winner will, instead, come from the GT1 World Championship, V8 Supercars or Brazilian V8 Stock Cars.