Sunday, July 24, 2011

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel (German pronunciation; born 3 July 1987) is a German Formula One racing driver, currently driving for Red Bull Racing. He is the current World Champion, having won in the 2010 season.

In his first year driving for Red Bull in 2009 he finished the season as the youngest ever championship runner-up. Vettel also secured Red Bull's first pole position and race win in the team's history. The following year he went on to become the youngest driver ever to win the World Drivers' Championship. In the same year he helped Red Bull win the team's first World Constructors' Championship, along with teammate Mark Webber.
Vettel is the youngest Formula One driver to drive at a Grand Prix meeting, at 19 years and 53 days, and on his race debut at the 2007 US Grand Prix he also became the youngest driver to score championship points. While racing for Toro Rosso, Vettel became the youngest driver to lead a race, at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix. During qualifying for the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, Vettel became the youngest Formula One driver to secure pole position. He went on to win the race, making him the youngest F1 race winner by nearly a year.He also is the first and only driver to win a race, secure pole position, and reach the podium in the history of the Toro Rosso team, including the twenty years it was known as the Minardi team.
Vettel also holds the fastest lap-time for a Formula One driver on BBC2's Top Gear programme in the "Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car" segment, with a lap of 1:44.0, beating previous holder Rubens Barrichello and the old Stig, Ben Collins.
Vettel was born in Heppenheim, West Germany. He has one younger brother, Fabian, and two older sisters, Melanie and Stefanie. Vettel suggested in an interview that he was terrible at school; he also mentioned that his childhood heroes were "The three Michaels", who were Michael Schumacher, Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan. He stated that he wanted to be a singer like Michael Jackson but realised that he couldn't as he didn't have the voice.Vettel lives in Switzerland amongst other racing drivers and is a fan of German football team Eintracht Frankfurt
Vettel started racing karts in 1995, winning various titles such as the Junior Monaco Kart Cup (2001). In 2003, he upgraded to open-wheel cars, and won the 2004 German Formula BMW Championship with 18 victories from 20 races. In 2005 he drove for ASL Mucke Motorsport in the Formula Three Euroseries. He was placed fifth in the final standings with 64 points, winning the year's top rookie honours. He did not win any races, but this was largely due to the championship's domination by ASM Formule 3. Despite this, he tested the Williams FW27 Formula One car on 27 September as a reward for this Formula BMW success. He then went on to test for the BMW Sauber team.
Vettel finished as runner-up in the 2006 F3 Euroseries, behind series leader and team mate Paul di Resta. He also made his debut in the World Series by Renault at Misano, winning after Pastor Maldonado was disqualified. However, at the next round at Spa-Francorchamps, his finger was almost sliced off by flying débris in an accident, and he was expected to be out of racing for several weeks. Nevertheless, he managed to compete in the Ultimate Masters of F3 at Zandvoort the following weekend, finishing in sixth place. He also set third fastest lap time, and it surprised his ASM team boss Frédéric Vasseur. Vasseur said: "I was impressed for sure, because at the beginning of the week I was sure he wouldn't race! But he showed good pace from the first practice session. I can't imagine he's 100 per cent but at least we know we can be competitive in the next F3 Euroseries round at the Nürburgring next weekend – that's important."

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