Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris will all race on their birthday during the 2022 Formula 1 season.
Three drivers will celebrate their birthday by partaking in a Grand Prix in 2022. There have been 71 previous occasions on which a driver has started a World Championship F1 race on their birthday. From those 71 occasions, only two have resulted in wins. James Hunt won on his 29th birthday at the 1976 Dutch Grand Prix, while Jean Alesi took his only career victory at the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix on his 31st birthday.
Sebastian Vettel, Valtteri Bottas and Lando Norris will all race on their birthday this year. It will be the tenth season in which three or more drivers have raced on their birthday. It last happened in 2018. Carlos Sainz was the last driver to race on his birthday, doing so at the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix.
In addition to the three aforementioned drivers, Daniel Ricciardo will take part in Free Practice on his birthday at the British Grand Prix, as will Fernando Alonso at the Hungarian Grand Prix and Max Verstappen at the Singapore Grand Prix. Meanwhile, Lance Stroll will take part in qualifying on his birthday at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel will celebrate his 35th birthday at the 2022 British Grand Prix. He’ll be the first driver to start the British Grand Prix on his birthday since Jarno Trulli in 1997. Vettel previously raced on his birthday at the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix. He retired from the race on that occasion. Vettel becomes only the sixth driver to have raced on his birthday on multiple occasions. Derek Warwick and Olivier Panis are the only other drivers to have raced on their 35th birthday.
Valtteri Bottas has also raced on his birthday before. He had more luck than Vettel on his last birthday appearance at the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, where he finished in eighth place. Bottas celebrates his 33rd birthday at the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix. Andrea de Cesaris was the last driver to race on his 33rd birthday, doing so at the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix.
Lando Norris will celebrate his 23rd birthday on the day of the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Norris will become the fourth driver – after Jacky Ickx, Gianmaria Bruni and Felipe Massa – to race on their 23rd birthday.
Should Vettel, Bottas or Norris take pole position for the race on their birthday, they would become the third driver to start a race from pole position on their birthday. Gerhard Berger did so at the 1995 Belgian Grand Prix and Mika Hakkinen did so at the 1997 Luxembourg Grand Prix. On both occasions, neither driver reached the end of the race.
