Humble Sebastian Vettel takes his place among Formula One's legends

Sebastian Vettel shows rare emotion after becoming the youngest ever quadruple Formula One champion. Photograph: Vladimir Rys Photography/Getty Images

When darkness fell on the mosquito-infested Buddh International Circuit, hours after the teams and their drivers had departed, the words ofSebastian Vettel resonated in the air just as much as his astonishing achievement.

What he has done in his noisy machine is already the stuff of legend. His 10th win of the season and his sixth in succession had delivered his fourth world championship with three grands prix still remaining.

He joins only three other drivers as quadruple winners but at 26 he is significantly younger than Michael Schumacher (32), Alain Prost (38) and Juan Manuel Fangio (45); only Vettel, Schumacher and Fangio have won four in successive seasons. The last time he failed to win the world title was in 2009, the year Barack Obama was elected president of the United States and Matt Smith became the new Doctor Who, when Michael Jackson departed and Susan Boyle arrived.

Down the length of the paddock less successful drivers were being asked what they thought about the genius in their midst, even being implored to defy their boredom.

Yet it was what Vettel said that was most impressive. He had already displayed a rare emotion, performing doughnuts in his winning Red Bull, rather than proceeding to parc fermé, and bowing as if in supplication before the car; he would be reprimanded for this before the day was out, for Formula One's attitudes do not allow for such excesses.

But now, pulling at his cap – pulling, too, at the child-sized bottle of champagne he was chaperoning – he spoke with a lucidity that reflected a keen intelligence.

It is this which separates him from his rivals as much as his driving; perhaps his compatriot Nico Rosberg, who was second to him in Sunday's Indian Grand Prix, is the closest to him here too.

"This morning I looked at the car and it's a small piece of kit," he said, smiling.

"It's not very big. A truck is bigger, any truck you can buy on the road is bigger but imagine the speed this car can travel with you behind the wheel.

"It's amazing. I just appreciate that fact, you know. Whether you finish first, second, 15th or last, it doesn't really matter, but I think it's something unique, that we get to feel, we get to enjoy. I appreciate that and hopefully this kind of feeling never changes." And he looked in genuine awe.

Then he talked about his workbench, the F1 track. "I had dinner here at the circuit last night. Many times people complain about the paddock and the people; to be honest with you, I'm not like that, I enjoy being here and spending time with people that you know.

"I like the paddock, it's not like a prison to me. People say when you cross the entrance it's like being in a circus but I think it's what you make of the circus also. If you come in with a negative mind-set, then for sure you will have a bad time."

And Vettel was determined not to have a bad time. "When my engineer called for the usual procedure to go to parc fermé [at the end of the race] and park the car, I said to myself, I don't care. I am going to the crowd at the main grandstand to have some fun there, which I enjoyed a lot."

He talked about his joyous childhood, and his love for his family, about his desire to explore India and about the Red Bull team who had helped him to achieve so much.

"I am very thankful for what these guys are doing. If you look at their pay cheques at the end of the month, you would be surprised at the number of hours they do. It is 100% commitment. I think it is better to work at McDonald's than do what they do."

Ultimately, though, the discussion returned to Vettel himself, and how he now rates himself against the best drivers there have ever been. "To join people like Michael, Fangio, Prost, it is too difficult to put it into perspective," he said. "I am way too young to understand what it means. I might be 60 one day and then understand and no one else will care but I will care and realise it is something no one can take away from you."

Only the mixed tyre strategies and the possibility of heavy traffic was expected to trouble pole-sitter Vettel in India. Starting on the softer tyre, the champion-elect was always going to pit earlier than the four drivers in the top 10 – including his team-mate, Mark Webber, who had chosen the harder, medium tyre. Vettel confounded everyone by pitting early, at the end of the second lap, and then carving his way through the traffic with some imperious driving.

He did not lead every lap, which he had done in the previous two races at the Buddh circuit, but, cutting through the field from almost the back – he was 17th after his early pit stop – he was more dominant than ever.

Webber, who had collided with the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso's Ferrari in the opening laps, dropped out of the contest two-thirds of the way through, with alternator trouble. At that stage, though – and even from the very beginning – there was going to be only one winner.