This German Formula one driver created history by becoming the youngest Formula one World Champion. He is Sebastian Vettel.
Sebastian Vettel was born on 3 July 1987 in Heppenheim, West Germany and has two older sisters and a younger brother. Like every little kid, he had the three 'Michaels' as his inspiration, Michael Schumacher, Michael Jordan and Michael Jackson. When he was a kid he dreamt of being a singer like Michael Jackson, but he realised that he did not have the voice to be a good singer and decided to follow a new career as a racing driver. Despite not being good at school he was able to finish with a respectable grade at Starkenburg Gymanasium high school in Heppenheim.
Vettel's career behind the wheel began very early as he started karting at the age of 3½ and later on started kart racing when he was just 8. After 3 years of karting and having already shown some exceptional talent he was accepted at the Red Bull Junior Team when he was just 11 years old. He continued performing consistently with the Red Bull Junior Team by winning various titles like the German Junior Karting Championship, Monaco Kart Cup and the European Junior Karting Championship in 2001. At 16 he had nearly 12 years of karting experience with him and decided to upgrade to cars in 2002. In just 2 seasons he won the German Formula BMW Championship in 2004 with a tremendous record of 18 wins in 20 races.
In 2005, he drove for ASL Mucke Motorsport in the Formula 3 Euroseries, he finished the season at 5th with 63 points as British driver Lewis Hamilton dominated the championship meaning Vettel's team did not win a single race. After this he made his debut as a F1 tester for Williams and tested the FW27 formula one car, due to his connections at BMW. Later he went on to test for the BMW Sauber F1 team.
In 2006, he drove another season in the Formula 3 Euro Series and also appeared in the Renault World Series for a couple of races winning both of them. Vettel finished second in the 2006 Formula 3 Euroseries, behind his team mate Paul di Resta. Then he had a career threatening crash at 170mph at Spa, a notorious Belgian race track. He severely damaged his hand and his right index finger had almost sliced off due to flying debris. It was stitched back together and he slowly recovered. He got his big break when BMW Sauber took him in as a test driver despite his accident. He was then soon promoted to Friday driver and set the fastest time in the second friday free practice session at Turkey which was his debut as a test driver. In his second testing session at the Italian Grand Prix 2006, he set the fastest time in both the friday practice sessions.
After some astounding performances in the 2006 season as a test driver, BMW Sauber confirmed him as the test driver for the 2007 season. Due to Robert Kubica's crash at the Canadian Grand Prix, Vettel, who was nearly 20 years old by then, substituted him for the United States Grand Prix where he became the youngest driver ever to score a championship point in Formula One by finishing 8th.
On 31st July 2007, BMW released Vettel to allow him to join Red Bull Scuderia Toro Rosso, who dropped Scott Speed after the European Grand Prix and asked Vettel to take his place. Before the Hungarian Grand Prix Vettel was confirmed as their driver for the 2008 season. He went on to finish fourth in Chinese Grand Prix.
In 2008, Vettel became the youngest driver in history to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix after he won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. He finished the 2008 season with 35 points in his bag. After the season had finished Vettel was named Rookie of the Year at the Autosport Awards and was rewarded with a place in the Red Bull F1 team.
In 2009, Vettel continued to make headlines with the team's first pole and win in the Chinese Grand Prix and with wins in the British Grand Prix and the Japanese Grand Prix. He finished the second in the driver's World Championship after a win at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
2010 was Vettel's year of triumph as he became the youngest World Champion in Formula 1. He won the season despite some driver errors, technical problems and tense rivalry with his team mate Mark Webber. In the 2010 season, he managed to get 10 pole positions and 5 victories and 10 podium finishes and collected a massive 256 points in the process.
In 2011, Vettel completely dominated the season with a whopping 11 Grand prix wins, 17 podiums from 19 races and broke the record for the most poles in a season at the season finale in Brazil.. He also earned a record total of 392 points in the process. As a result, he won the World Championship for a second time with four races to spare. By winning the 2011 season he created history by becoming the youngest double champion. At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Vettel had to retire due to suspension damage. This was his first retirement since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix.
In 2012, Vettel had a slow start to the season as he had to wait until the third round for his first pole position. The 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix was the first time that Vettel finished outside the top 10 since the 2010 Belgian Grand Prix where he finished in the 11th place. 2012 was more of a mixed bag for Vettel as he had to adjust to the blown-diffuser-less RB8, a verbal spat with Karthikeyan over a collision in Malaysia, an alternator failure at Valencia and a 20 second penalty for going off the track in Germany. Despite facing all these problems, Vettel was able to take 5 wins, 6 poles and 10 podiums with him and was able to finish the season in the first place with 281 points.
In 2013, Vettel was at his peak as he finished the season with 13 wins, 16 podiums and 9 poles. He was able to break his own record for total points as he won 397 points. He was booed on several occasions for the controversy that took place in the Malaysian Grand Prix where he was ordered to not overtake Webber by the team and he did not follow the orders by overtaking Webber and winning the Grand prix. The booing was widely condemned by fellow drivers, the media and others in the paddock.
After Vettel joined Red Bull in 2009, he has been consistent and has won the Formula 1 Championship four times out of five seasons. On 21 August 2009 it was announced that Red Bull and Vettel had extended his contract until the end of the 2011 season with an option for 2012. The option was taken up on 14 March 2011, as Vettel extended his contract with the team until the end of 2014. Vettel has mentioned he would like to drive for Ferrari at some point in his career and was rumoured to have a non-binding pre-contract, with options, to join them in 2014. Red Bull believe he will stay with the team for as long as they supply a competitive car. Prior to the 2011 Japanese Grand Prix, Red Bull's advisor Helmut Marko expressed his wish to extend Vettel's contract for another two years to 2016. On 11 June 2013, Vettel agreed to a contract extension with Red Bull until the end of the 2015 season.
