Sebastian Vettel

- Published on Dec 25th, 2010 by The Badger

Life Before F1
Picked as Red Bull's golden boy before he was a teenager, Vettel moved in to cars in 2003, finishing as runner-up in Formula BMW ADAC. He won it the next year, contested the F3 Euro Seires in 2005 and '06 then switched to Formula Renault 3.5 for 2007. The season hadn't even finished when he was given a one-off drive with BMW Sauber, and then a full-time deal by Toro Rosso. 12 months later he was a megastar in Monza.

F1 Career
Vettel became third driver at BMW Sauber - whilst still under contract with Red Bull - when Robert Kubica was promoted to a race seat with the team at the Turkish Grand Prix of 2006. At the following year's U.S Grand Prix Kubica was recovering from a nasty accident at the previous race in Canada handing Vettel a one-off appearance in the Bavarian marque's car. He qualified seventh and finished eighth, thus becoming the youngest ever F1 points scorer.

Vettel then returned to his reserve role, but when Scott Speed was sacked by Toro Rosso in July Seb was handed his seat. His first few races were quiet, but he made headlines by running third in an insanely wet Japanese Grand Prix - only to slam in to the back of Red Bull's Mark Webber behind the safety car, eliminating both men. Seb redeemed himself with a superb fourth next time out in China, though whether Mark felt amends had been made we don't know.

2008 saw Vettel really put his name on the map. When Toro Rosso introduced the STR3 five races in to the season he began to excel, taking a superb fifth in Monaco and adding points finishes at the Canadian, German, European and Belgian Grand Prix. Then came his defining moment: pole and a win at the Italian Grand Prix was one of the most famous wins in F1 history and made 21-year-old Vettel the youngest F1 race-winner. He closed the season with more points in Singapore, Japan and Brazil and was promptly promoted to the senior Red Bull team for 2009.

2009 started badly, a tangle with Robert Kubica costing Vettel a sure podium in Australia and a spin in the torrential rain of Malaysia leaving him with no points from two races. But at the next race in China he finally kicked his campaign off, winning from pole. He was runner-up in Bahrain and took points in Spain but threw away a good result in Monaco by crashing at Saint Devote. However by mid-season the RB5 was the class of the field and a win at Silverstone, followed by second in Germany, saw Vettel began to eke closer to points leader Jenson Button. DNFs in Hungary and Europe damaged his bid, and despite looking the quickest man on the grid as the season concluded he couldn't overcome the Brawn driver. He would win in Japan and at the season-closing Abu Dhabi event to finish second in the championship, the youngest ever driver to take runner-up spot.

Prior to the 2010 campaign Vettel was viewed by many as title favourite, and lived up to that billing with pole at three of the opening four races. However he won just one of those - and that was from third on the grid in Malaysia. In fact Vettel's season didn't really kick in to gear until F1 left Europe. Before that he'd had scrapes in Turkey, Britain and Belgium and only added one win to his Malaysian triumph, taking a comfortable victory in Valencia.

But the youngster really launched his title bid off as F1 headed for the flyaway races, taking second in Singapore before winning the Japanese GP with ease. Korea was all his before an engine failure ended his race, but that was followed by another win in Brazil. He was an outside bet for the title heading to the season finale but there was no question that he was the man in form. Victory in Abu Dhabi - combined with the failure of chief title rivals Webber and Fernando Alonso - gave Vettel an incredible world championship triumph, ensuring that the 23-year-old became the youngest man ever to claim the drivers' crown. He still has the potential to improve and grow as both a driver and a person, and with so many years ahead of him could become of the sport's true greats.

And another thing...
Vettel holds a number of youth-related records in F1. He is the sport's youngest champion (2010), youngest race-winner, podium finisher and pole-sitter (all achieved at Monza 2008), as well as the youngest driver to lead a race (at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix) and the youngest person to take part in a Grand Prix weekend. The final record was achieved at the 2006 Turkish GP, where Vettel took part in practice for BMW Sauber aged 19-years and 53 days.