Championship record
1
World titles
4
1
Runner-up
3
2
Top-3 finishes
8
P1
Best championship
P1
Career totals
John Surtees
Sebastian Vettel
Championships
1
4
Wins
6
53
Poles
8
57
Podiums
24
122
Fastest laps
0
38
Career points
180
3,098
Starts
112
300
Rate-adjusted · per start
John Surtees
Sebastian Vettel
Win rate
5.4%
17.7%
Podium rate
21.4%
40.7%
Pole rate
7.1%
19%
Points / start
1.6
10.3
Avg grid
P7.7
P6.3
Avg finish
P10.3
P7.1
Finish rate
50%
88%
Rates reward peak form; totals reward longevity. Avg grid/finish: lower is better.
On-track overtaking
John Surtees
Sebastian Vettel
Overtakes
0
2,126
Overtakes / race
0.0
7.3
Places lost
0
1,897
Sum of lap-by-lap positions gained on track — start lap and own pit laps excluded.
Only races with lap data count, so the per-race figure is the fair comparison across eras.
Why they retired
John Surtees
Sebastian Vettel
Mechanical retirements
50
20
Crash retirements
5
15
Classified from the finishing status. Mechanical covers car failures, crash covers accidents, collisions and damage — fewer is better on both.
Retirements with an unclear cause: 1 · 1
Milestones & racecraft
1960
Debut season
2007
1963 · aged 29
First win
2008 · aged 21
1960
First pole
2008
1964 · aged 30
First title
2010 · aged 23
P1
Best finish
P1
-2.7
Avg places gained
-0.7
Season points trajectory
John Surtees
Sebastian Vettel
Final points each season — scoring systems changed over the eras.
Track by track
| Circuit | John Surtees | Sebastian Vettel |
|---|---|---|
| W · Pod · Best | W · Pod · Best | |
| Autodromo Nazionale di Monza | 2 · 2 · P1 | 3 · 6 · P1 |
| Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps | 1 · 1 · P1 | 3 · 6 · P1 |
| Nürburgring | 2 · 4 · P1 | 1 · 2 · P1 |
| Silverstone Circuit | 0 · 3 · P2 | 2 · 5 · P1 |
| Circuit de Monaco | 0 · 0 · P4 | 2 · 7 · P1 |
| Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez | 1 · 2 · P1 | 0 · 2 · P2 |
| Red Bull Ring | 0 · 0 · — | 0 · 2 · P2 |
| Circuit Park Zandvoort | 0 · 2 · P2 | 0 · 0 · P13 |
| Hockenheimring | 0 · 0 · P9 | 0 · 2 · P2 |
| Circuit Paul Ricard | 0 · 0 · P8 | 0 · 0 · P5 |
Team history
John Surtees
Team Lotus 1960Cooper-Climax 1961Lola 1962Ferrari 1963–1966Cooper-Maserati 1966Honda 1967–1968BRM 1969McLaren-Ford 1970Surtees 1970–1972
Sebastian Vettel
19602022
Basis
Head-to-head counts races where both drivers were classified, compared by final position (post-penalty). Teammate section counts only seasons in the same car. Career totals mirror the source data. Data: Jolpica-F1 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).