A detailed look at the profile of Formula 1’s youngest world champion Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel became the youngest ever world drivers’ champion of Formula 1 racing in 2010. In 2011, the defending champion proved himself as one of the most successful drivers by defending his title.
Vettel was born in 1987 and started kart racing in 1995. In 2001, he won German and European Junior karting titles. In 2003, he was the runner-up in the Formula BMW ADAC championship and won 5 out of 19 races.
In 2004, Vettel became the Formula BMW ADAC champion and took 18 victories out of 20. Later, in the following year he stood fifth in the Formula 3 Euro Series and was declared the best rookie driver after securing five podiums. During the same year, he enjoyed
his first Formula 1 test held at the Jerez Circuit, Spain with BMW Williams.
In 2006, he stood second in Formula 3 Euro Series after he won three races. In 2007, he became the youngest point scorer when he stood in for BMW’s Robert Kubica at Indy and he took eighth position.
In the same year, Vettel was able to secure a race seat with Toro Rosso from the Hungarian Grand Prix and earned the best ever result for the team with fourth position in China. He earned around $165,000 after finishing his season with Toro Rosso.
Vettel started his first full Formula 1 season in 2008 and he became the youngest winner of F1 Grand Prix with a great victory in wet weather at Monza, he scored 35 points during the season.
However, he struggled at the start of the season with his first couple of races but managed to perform impressively well in the fifth and sixth drives for the team which was struggling before the arrival of Vettel with an average of little worse than the
14th position in the 2007.
In 2009, he went to Red Bull’s senior RBR team after replacing David Coulthard. He continued the journey with a great passion and kept on making the headlines with his performances. He became the runner up in the drivers’ championship in 2009 after scoring
Red Bull’s maiden pole and securing victories in China, Silverstone, Suzuka and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix.
In 2010, despite having some driver mistakes, technical issues and the extreme rivalry with the teammate, Mark Webber, Vettel’s mighty pace brought 5 victories and 10 pole positions and he became the youngest ever F1 champion.
In 2011, he became the youngest double world champion in F1 after scoring 11 wins and attaining record 15 pole positions.
An announcement was made on August 21, 2009 that Vettel has extended his contract with Red Bull racing until 2011 while keeping an option for 2012 but later the contract was extended to the year 2014.
Moreover, Red Bull’s advisor, Helmut Marko has expressed that he would like to extend the contract with Vettel for two more years. Nevertheless, Vettel has mentioned that he would surely like to drive Ferrari and Mercedes at some point of his career in future.
Vettel is one of the quickest drivers and has a special talent of leading from the pole position. He is very fast, witted and smart and has surely got all what it takes to be a world champion.
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