Born 3 July 1987 in the town of Heppenheim, Germany, Sebastian enjoyed a successful career in karting before making an immediate impression the moment he came into open-wheel racing. Starting the 2003 season aged 15, he won five of 19 races in his debut Formula BMW year, finishing second in the German Championship. The next year he took the title, winning 18 of the 20 races (he finished on the podium in the other two but doesn’t like to talk about them).

It marked Vettel as one to watch and he duly tested F1 cars for Williams and BMW-Sauber, while moving up through the junior ranks, impressing in Formula 3 and the World Series by Renault. Vettel’s chance in F1 came when he replaced Robert Kubica as BMW-Sauber’s third driver in the second half of the 2006 season. In addition to incurring the Stewards’ wrath, Vettel’s debut during Friday practice for the Turkish Grand Prix also saw him finish the day top of the timesheets.

While the performance on track was impressive, everyone was equally knocked out by the confidence and effervescence with which the teenage Seb dealt with the garage and Paddock. The authority with which he spoke and the evident self-deprecating wit stood him out as much as the blistering pace.

Sebastian finally got his chance to race a year later, standing in for the injured Kubica at the United States Grand Prix. Still only 19, he qualified seventh and finished eighth, becoming the youngest man to score a Championship point. Later in the 2007 season he moved to a permanent seat at Scuderia Toro Rosso. He made a lasting impression on future team-mate Mark Webber (and the rear of his car) during the monsoon-hit Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji before bouncing back a week later to secure fourth place at an equally waterlogged Chinese Grand Prix.

Confirmed for 2008, Vettel didn’t have the best start to his first full season and crashed out of the first four races, mostly as a result of being dragged into other drivers’ accidents. Fortunately the crash-magnet curse was soon lifted, and Vettel scored points at Monaco, Montreal, Hockenheim, Valencia, Spa, Singapore, Fuji and Interlagos – though the only race anyone properly remembers is the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

On the back of a strong fifth place in Belgium, Vettel and Scuderia Toro Rosso went to Italy in good form. Torrential rain over the weekend failed to dampen their pace, and Vettel duly became, first, the youngest driver to take pole position in Formula One history, and then the youngest race winner, having utterly dominated the race in which a rudder may have been of more use than a steering wheel.

Elevated to the senior Red Bull team for 2009, Vettel won his second, and Red Bull Racing’s first, victory at the third race of the year. He followed it with a string of podium and solid points-scoring finishes and established himself as a firm championship contender with a second, commanding victory in the British Grand Prix. He finished the season strongly with further victories in Japan and Abu Dhabi that, together with four other podium finishes took him to second place in the Drivers’ Championship.

Definitely a follower of the ‘second is first of the losers’ philosophy, Sebastian has loftier ambitions for 2010. He lists his lifetime ambitions as winning the Formula One World Championship and beating Kimi Räikkönen at badminton.

Visit his official website: www.sebastianvettel.de