The highs and lows of Sebastian Vettel
The German ace’s 16-year F1 career has had some incredible ups and downs – Tony Dodgins charts the progression of a grand prix legend
Vettel in 2010, having secured his first world title in Abu Dhabi
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The Formula 1 paddock will be greatly the poorer for the loss of Sebastian Vettel when he calls time on an extraordinary grand prix career at the end of the season. You kind of feared it might happen, but hoped it wouldn’t ever.
When a youthful-looking Vettel made his debut at Indianapolis in 2007, substituting for Robert Kubica at BMW after the Pole’s huge shunt at the previous race in Canada, you knew you were watching an emerging talent. But not a four-time world champion just six seasons down the road!
Vettel’s BMW links came through dominating a Formula BMW championship as a teenager with 18 wins from 20 starts but, in F1 terms, there was no room at the inn. The team’s F1 line-up was German Nick Heidfeld, a champion in Formula 3000 – the equivalent series to the current F2 – and Kubica, so Vettel was given a testing role.