MADRID (AP) - Sebastian Vettel ensured Red Bull's place in Formula One history as the sport's youngest ever champion in a season that featured one of the most competitive grids in history and Michael Schumacher's disappointing return.

The 23-year-old Vettel won the last two races of the season to overtake two-time champion Fernando Alonso for the title in Abu Dhabi.

Seven-time champion Schumacher, meanwhile, returned with Mercedes after a three-year retirement at age 41 and finished 184 points behind Vettel in ninth.

Red Bull delivered a jolt to F1 as Vettel teammate Mark Webber finished third overall to ensure the constructors' championship for the energy-drink backed team.

After only six seasons in F1 and after nearly breaking through with the title the previous season, Red Bull expects more of the same in 2011.

"We expect a new car again but we don't take anything for granted," said Webber, who finished the last four races with a fractured shoulder to end 14 points behind.

The Australian has cleared the air with Vettel after a season when the two drivers clashed on the track, a year in which four champions raced in one of the most competitive seasons in history.

With Vettel, there will now be five champions on the grid for the start of the 2011 season.

Red Bull said it will not alter its ban on team orders, although FIA has decided to allow them as long as they don't bring the sport into disrepute. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said Alonso and teammate Felipe Massa will start on equal footing.

"In a year when we did not have the best car, we managed to get to the last race still in with a great chance of winning the title after staging a really strong recovery," said Alonso, who went into the finale at Abu Dhabi with an eight-point lead but ended up four point behind Vettel in second.

"In a race like that last one, anything could happen."

Neither Lewis Hamilton nor Jenson Button managed to secure the championship for McLaren, but all teams expect the British team to be one of the title favorites despite the ban on F-ducts and adjustable rear wings, two technical advantages McLaren held over the field.

Button, who finished fifth behind Hamilton after winning his first title in 2009, expects the team to again push the boundaries of the new regulations, including the return of overtaking system KERS.

"They have so much experience in that area that I think we'll have an advantage," Button said. "We'll have an advantage on Red Bull and Ferrari I think, which is great. We'll take every advantage we possibly can."

Red Bull has no experience with KERS, while Ferrari does. Mercedes is hoping its engine compatibility with the energy recovery system gives it a chance to challenge after Schumacher's return fizzled.

Schumacher and the Silver Arrow's optimistic return quickly faded. Teammate Nico Rosberg nearly doubled Schumacher's point total, but still finished seventh.

Renault, meanwhile, showed it was making strides to move past the "crashgate" scandal of 2008. With Robert Kubica at the helm and a first Russian driver in Vitaly Petrov, the French team finished fifth. It will start 2011 as Team Renault Lotus after reaching an agreement to use the iconic team name.

The move means Malaysia Air boss Tony Fernandes may have to find a new name for his cars after he returned the Lotus name to F1 in 2010. Lotus proved to be the best of the three new teams, ahead of Virgin Racing and HRT.

Several regulation changes will greet teams in 2011 as drivers face tougher sanctions for dangerous or unsporting driving, with stewards able to exclude them from a race or suspend them for the next. F1 will also introduce a curfew to cut down on man hours.

Mexican driver Sergio Lopez and Pastor Maldonado of Venezuela bring a Latin American flair to the grid in 2011.

And a street mugging in central London will not keep 80-year-old F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone away as the sport survived the season with all major sponsors intact, a successful first South Korean GP and a season free of lurid off-circuit scandals.

LONDON: Twice US Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal would accept the 2012 European Ryder Cup captaincy if he was offered the role, according to his manager Sergio Gomez.

Olazabal has previously said health worries could force him to turn down the chance to succeed Colin Montgomerie as skipper but his long-time manager said the 44-year-old was now ready to take on the United States in Medinah, near Chicago, in two years' time.

"I'm quite sure he would take the captaincy if the job was offered to him," Gomez told Reuters on Tuesday. "I think he's fit and ready and would be delighted."

The European Tour is due to hold a Ryder Cup news conference at next month's Abu Dhabi Championship when Olazabal could be formally appointed.

Last month, Tour chief executive George O'Grady gave a broad hint that the Spaniard was the front-runner to take over as skipper.

"Just about every player on the Tour, when I last talked to them, would love to see him as the captain," O'Grady told reporters at the season-ending Dubai World Championship.

"He has not been invited yet but I think if every player you are talking to sees him as an inspirational figure, then the people in a room on a given day have got to vote it."

Olazabal has been dogged by injuries and ill-health, including losing two years to rheumatoid arthritis in his feet in the mid-1990s.

He has suffered with rheumatic pain in his back and shoulders for the past two years and played just three competitive European Tour events in 2010.

Gomez said Olazabal was still in some discomfort but that his fitness had improved and he planned to play all four tournaments in next month's 'Desert Swing' covering Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Qatar and Dubai.

The popular Spaniard, one of Montgomerie's deputies when Europe regained the Ryder Cup in Wales in October, has always said he would consider taking over as captain only if he was competing regularly and in constant touch with the players.

Gomez said Olazabal wanted to play much more in 2011.

"We don't have a schedule beyond the Desert Swing but at some stage, maybe the end of February, he wants to go and see (coach) Butch Harmon in Las Vegas for a week or two to try and improve," explained Gomez.

"He is always in search of perfection.

"If I had to define his character and spirit on the golf course I would say he's a mixture of Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo - perfection on one side and fighting spirit on the other." – Reuters