A look at the profile of Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel – Formula 1
The Red Bull Racing team can be proud to have young Sebastian Vettel as a part of their team.
Vettel who is just, 25 is of German origin and has been racing for the Red Bull team since 2009. He holds the honour of being the current world champion as he won the championship in 2011 and before that in 2010 which makes him the youngest consecutive champion.
He is also the youngest ever double champion since he won not only the drivers’ championship but also helped the team win the constructors’ championship in the same year.
Vettel admits to have started his career at an age of as young as 3. He was part of amateur karting at that age.
In 1995, when he turned 8, he began to take part in the kart series. He won the junior Monaco kart cup in 2001; the German Formula BMW championship in 2004 scoring 18 out 20 victories; came fifth in the final standings with 64 points when he raced for ASL
Mucke Motorsport in 2005; finally heading for BMW Sauber team.
Vettel drove for BMW Sauber team from 2006 to 2007. He started as the BMW Sauber third driver for the Turkish Grand Prix. He was confirmed as a test driver in 2007 and at the United States Grand Prix, he started at the seventh grid position. He finished
at eight and earned his first ever world championship point making him the youngest driver to score a Formula 1 point.
In July 2007, Vettel joined the Toro Rosso racing team. He kept struggling with his new team for the first few races but finally achieved some success completing his fifth and sixth drives. At the Japanese Grand Prix held in Fuji, even battling rain he completed
third just after Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber.
In 2008, Vettel met bad luck when he could not complete a single race from the first four races of the season but completed the fifth round of the Turkish Grand Prix coming in 17th. The same year at the Italian Grand Prix, he broke the record set by Fernando
Alonso by becoming the youngest driver in history to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Following his successful victories, the German media nicknamed him ‘Baby Schumi’ after the famous German driver Michael Schumacher.
In the beginning of the 2009 season, Vettel replaced driver David Coulthard when he retired from the Red Bull racing team. He started impressively by qualifying third and coming in second for most of the race at the Australian Grand Prix.
In China, he earned a first ever pole position for the Red Bull racing team and it did not end there. He also gained the first ever race win for his team in the same race. Thus Vettel became the youngest driver to have won Grand Prix races for two different
teams; the first one being for the Toro Rosso team at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.
Vettel is currently driving for Red Bull and is partnered by Mark Webber. Red Bull have extended its contract with him until the end of 2014. The driver has expressed his wish to drive for Ferrari at some point in the future whereas the advisor for the Red
Bull team wishes to extend the contract until 2014.
Vettel’s career has done him good. Even though the media calls him the new Schumi based on his German nationality and driving tactics, he wants to become the new Vettel.
In February 2012, he was awarded the highest sports award in Germany, Silver Bay Laurel Leaf, for his outstanding abilities.
Tags: