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Vettel’s progress through the lower ranks of motorsport was astonishingly rapid and successful.
He spent eight years in karts, winning the German Junior Karting Championship, Monaco Kart Cup and European Junior Karting Championship in 2001. The following year he was sixth in the Senior ICA Kart Championship and then moved into car racing.
He finished second in the 2003 Formula BMW Germany championship and was top rookie. The following year, aged 17, he won the title with 18 wins from 20 starts and 387 points from a maximum of 400.
The following season he was fifth in the Formula Three Euroseries. The championship was dominated by Lewis Hamilton and ASM - Vettel’s ASL team didn’t win a single race.
Thanks to his BMW connections Vettel made his début as an F1 tester for the Williams team. Still aged only 18, he had to ask his school teacher for time off to do the test.
The following year Vettel joined Paul di Resta at ASM but finished second to the Scot in the championship. A début appearance in the World Series by Renault proved much more fruitful - Vettel winning both races at Misano.
He also appeared at the next round at Spa but crashed, injuring his hand.
Vettel also joined BMW as a test driver and became their Friday driver after Robert Kubica was promoted to the race team in Jacques Villeneuve’s place. Vettel was fastest of all in Friday practice at his first weekend in Turkey, and repeated the feat at the Italian Grand Prix.
2007 saw him race a full season in the World Series by Renault. But when Kubica was injured in the Canadian Grand Prix Vettel stood in for the Pole at Indianapolis and finished eighth, becoming the youngest driver to score a championship point.
Kubica returned at the following round but Vettel would get another chance in F1 later that year. Toro Rosso dropped American Scott Speed following the European Grand Prix, and Vettel took his place for the rest of the season.
While running an excellent third in the wet Japanese Grand Prix Vettel collided with the driver in front of him during a safety car period - worst of all it was fellow Red Bull driver Mark Webber, who had a potential victory in his sights. Vettel made up for it in the next race at Shanghai though, where he finished fourth, the best result for Toro Rosso to date.
Photo: BMW Media
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