Teams
BMW – 2007
Toro Rosso – 2007-2008
Red Bull – 2009

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 d̩but appearance in the World Series by Renault proved much more fruitful РVettel winning both races at Misano.

He also appeared at the next round at Spa but badly injured his hand in a 170mph crash. His right index finger was almost severed and had to be stitched back together.

BMW

Nonetheless Vettel joined BMW’s F1 team 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, where not only did he also become the youngest driver to participate in a Grand Prix weekend (aged 19 years and 53 days), but he also collected a fine for speeding in the pit lane on the way to the track for the first time.

He began the 2007 season racing in World Series by Renault. But when Kubica was injured during 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 got another chance in F1 later that year.

Toro Rosso

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.

Even better would follow in 2008, when Vettel dominated the wet Italian Grand Prix, taking pole position and leading almost all the way to win. He said afterwards:

In the race itself I was surprised – you’ve just taken the chequered flag in first the race is over, and you’ve won your first Grand Prix. To start with I didn’t understand and started thinking, “What do you say at a time like this?”

In the end my engineer, who’s a very quiet guy, came on the radio and told me that I’d just won the Italian Grand Prix. I turned on the radio and started talking very slowly and collectedly, thanking people.

It’s dumb – you work your whole life for a moment like this and when it finally happens, you don’t know where you are. But by the end of the slow-dowm lap it clicked and then I turned the radio back on again and screamed my thanks, this time in Italian.

It was the culmination of a rapid progress made by the team throughout the season. Vettel had often struggled to get beyond the first lap early in the year, but the arrival of the new STR3 chassis at Monte-Carlo followed later by an engine upgrade put the team in among the front runners.

Red Bull

By then Vettel had already been confirmed as David Coulthard’s replacement at Red Bull for 2009. But his second full season of F1 didn’t get off to a great start.

While running second at Melbourne he overstepped the mark in his attempt to defend his position from Robert Kubica and the pair collided. The steward handed Vettel a grid penalty for the next round at Malaysia, where he also failed to score.

This was a setback at the beginning of a year which he eventually ended as runner-up in the drivers’ championship. He won four times, including a dominant wet-weather victory at Shanghai which echoed his maiden win at Monza.

Later in the season the RB5 was often the car to beat and Vettel added wins at Silverstone, Suzuka and Abu Dhabi. But more lost opportunities hampered his championship ambitions: a crash at Monaco, a collision with Kimi Räikkönen at the Hungaroring, and a mistake on the first lap while leading at Istanbul. A blown engine at Valencia (his second that weekend) hindered his chances further.

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