Vettel (pictured), the sport’s youngest ever champion, took the award for International Racing Driver of the Year, as voted for by readers of Autosport.
“It’s been a tiring month and yesterday was the first time I had a chance to be back with the guys from the team to celebrate properly,” said the 23-year-old German, who was presented with his award by former grand prix winner David Coulthard. “It’s been an amazing season, but winning requires more passion than one person can bring. This was truly a team effort.”
Three time F1 world champion Sir Jackie Stewart and Williams driver Rubens Barrichello, who became the first driver in F1 history to reach the magic 300 grand prix mark this year, were both honoured for lifetime achievement.
The car that took Vettel to the title, the Red Bull RB6, was voted Racing Car of the Year, with chief technical officer Adrian Newey accepting the award, while other winners included world rally king Sebastien Loeb, leading F1 rookie Kamui Kobayashi and legendary US team owner Chip Ganassi.
Meanwhile, Lewis Williamson became the 22nd winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award. The 21-year-old Scot beat fellow five finalists to the prize, which included £100,000 and a McLaren-Mercedes F1 test, after a shoot-out at Silverstone in Formula 2 and Mercedes DTM cars.
