Five F1 Champions: Younger Drivers More Dangerous To Insure?

It’s not an easy time to be a young driver with petrol prices spiralling out of control and young driver car insurance prices being significantly larger than for older and more experienced drivers.

Young male motorists have been hit particularly hard, with the average male driver under the age of 25 now paying £2,090 on average every single year for car insurance compared to the national average of £921 quoted by the RAC. MoneySupermarket has stated that this is all down to statistics, with young male drivers being responsible for 92% of the total number of driving convictions in the UK each year.

The assumption that young drivers are a riskier proposition than older motorists is also reflected in the car hire market, with drivers under the age of 25 not legally permitted to hire a vehicle.

However, is all of this really a fair reflection of young driver abilities? If these five F1 champions are anything to go by then it might not be. Note that the figure next to their names is the age at which they won their first F1 championships.

1. Sebastian Vettel: 23 years, 106 days

Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport, with the greatest drivers in the world battling it out to be crowned the champion. At the tender age of 23, Sebastian Vettel out-performed his more experienced counterparts to become the youngest ever World Champion in 2010. This came two years after he had become the sport's youngest ever race winner while driving for mid-grid team Toro Rosso.

Although Vettel had not been averse to the odd mistake during his championship winning year, the German was certainly no worse in this respect than 41 year old seven times World Champion Michael Schumacher who finished in a distant 9th place.

The young German handled the pressure of a five man shoot out for the crown brilliantly in the final two races after a disappointing engine failure in Korea to steal the crown from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who had entered the final race with a 17 point lead over the 23 year old. Vettel went onto to become the sport's youngest ever double World Champion in 2011 when he was still classified as being part of a high risk insurance group by insurers and also not eligible to hire a car!

2. Lewis Hamilton: 23 years, 307 days

The man that Vettel displaced as the sport's youngest champion was Lewis Hamilton who entered the sport at the age of 22 in 2007 as team-mate to Fernando Alonso at McLaren. This created one of the most bitter and tightly contested rivalries in the sports history as both men battled for supremacy.

Hamilton came within 1 point of becoming the first rookie driver to win the championship, but the battle with Alonso ultimately allowed Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen to sneak through and take the crown at the final race in Brazil. However, the British driver was appeased just 12 months later as he passed Toyota’s Timo Glock on the final corner of the last lap in the last race of the season to take the 5th place he needed to finish one point ahead of Felipe Massa and claim the title.

If anything, Hamilton seems to make more mistakes now than he did at the age of 22; with the McLaren driver being involved in ten separate collisions over the course of the 19 race championship. This ultimately resulted in him being beaten over the course of the season by a team-mate for the first time in his career in 2011.

3. Fernando Alonso: 24 years, 58 days

Before Hamilton, the last man to hold the honour of being the World’s youngest ever champion was the British driver’s arch nemesis Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard sealed the crown in his Renault with two races of the 2005 championship remaining to put an end to Michael Schumacher and Ferrari’s era of dominance.

Alonso took seven wins in the process, one of which was a brilliant defensive victory at Imola where the Spaniard managed to hold off the attentions of the attacking Michael Schumacher in a situation where any error would have allowed his older compatriot through.

The Spaniard remained with Renault for the following season and produced another error free campaign to become the sports youngest double World Champion (prior to Sebastian Vettel taking the honour last year); once again outperforming the older and more experienced Schumacher.

4. Emerson Fittipaldi: 25 years, 273 days

The late 60s and early 1970s was all about Tyrrell and Lotus, with both teams having their own private battle for championship honours for four consecutive seasons. Over the duration of this period, Tyrrell was led by the smooth and consistent Jackie Stewart but Lotus was disrupted by the untimely passing of lead driver Jochen Rindt in a horrible qualifying accident at Monza in 1970.

Lotus team principle Colin Chapman decided to take a risk and promote the 23 year old Emerson Fittipaldi to the role of lead driver following Rindt’s passing and the young Brazilian didn’t disappoint as he became the sport's youngest champion in 1972.

Fittipaldi won a second title in 1974 upon moving to McLaren but then decided to set up his own team with his brother Wilson. Despite employing some of the sports rising technical stars such as Adrian Newey, the team never managed to get it together and the Brazilian eventually turned his back on F1 in 1980 as he failed to replicate the success he had experienced in his younger years.

5. Michael Schumacher: 25 years, 315 days

It might seem odd to think it now as he dodders around the F1 track, but Michael Schumacher was once a young man; and a very fast one at that. He made his debut at the age of 22 for Jordan in 1991 and after a stunning opening race performance was immediately snapped up by Benetton where he was began to work with techie’s Ross Brawn and Rory Bryne for the first time.

The three men immediately achieved a fantastic working relationship which ultimately resulted in seven driver’s and constructions championship victories over the next 15 years for both Benetton and Ferrari. The first of which came in 1994 when the 25 year old Michael Schumacher made a dominant start to the season winning the opening four races. This is the sort of performance that a 43 year old Michael Schumacher could only dream of replicating in his Mercedes Benz.