Motorsports Mondial

Artwork: Sarah Sahadin/Malaysia

Sebastian Vettel: 2010 Formula 1 World Champion

Bastian came into this world on July 3, 1987. His home town in Germany is Heppenheim, not too far from Hockenheim. He was moving around quite quickly in karting from the age of eight.

He won the Junior Monaco Kart Cup in 2001. Same year he also won the ICA Junior and German Junior Karting Championships.

According to a recent interview, Bastian explained in his karting days the family did not have the money to buy rain tires, so he practiced and at times raced in the wet on slick tires; many years later at Monza Heikki Kovalainen experienced first hand the advantage of such training!

It was in his karting days that one of Vettel’s backers approached several F1 team owners, asking them to look at the young German. According to this person one of the leading F1 team principals told him to stop wasting time on his wunderkind.

Then came the charge of Red Bull, they gave little Bastian little wings in the form of sponsorship which was initially less than $10k per year! The partnership has sure come a long way; as Nando and Webbo experienced first hand in the sands of Arabia last month.

On his way to becoming only the second German world champion, Bastian won 18 of 20 races to win the 2004 Formula BMW Germany championship.

In 2005, he was third in the Macau F3 Grand Prix and finished 5th in the F3 Euro series with five podium finishes. He was second in this championship in 2006 with four wins and 9 podium finishes.

He made his F1 debut in the United States in 2007, replacing the injured Robert Kubica and scored a point in his first race.

Rest is history, youngest race winner, pole winner and world champion.

There is a lot more to come before he folds his wings and say ‘wiedersehn’ to the world of motor racing.

Till then he won’t even need a manager; “I can get to the track on my own!”

Some might say one cocky German.

Others may ask, haven’t we seen this movie before?

– – Nasir Hameed

Greetings and Jägermeister regards for the Holiday Season.