New Kid in Town: Interview with Sebastian Vettel

He has been labelled the most engaging Formula One driver for 20 years - and he has not even started racing yet. Some seasoned paddock veterans, who have grown weary of the corporate blandness of the modern generation of stars, have even admitted that this youngster's arrival in F1 has rekindled their faith in the sport.

These responses are typical of the kind of stir that Sebastian Vettel has caused since he turned up as BMW-Sauber's third driver at the Turkish Grand Prix. He has instantly become a paddock favourite - and not just because he appears to be very quick on track.

His boyish good looks, his friendly persona and his quirky sense of humour, far removed from the stereotypical German type, have instantly moved him to the top of many people's lists of drivers you would want to go out for a beer with.

But don't just take my word for it. Let's hear what Vettel has to say about himself...

On the reaction he has caused in the paddock

Just like Robert Kubica could never have imagined how his season would pan out when he signed up as BMW-Sauber test driver last winter, Vettel would never have dreamed about the chance he would get following Jacques Villeneuve's departure.

The youngster has long been a favourite of BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen, but few imagined he would settle in so quickly to the job in hand. Sure he has had more revs and new sets of tyres to help boost his laptimes, but there has been no sign of nerves or mistakes. So far, so good - and Vettel cannot believe how the F1 world has taken to him.

"If somebody would have asked me earlier this year, imagine yourself being in Brazil, Suzuka, Istanbul, Monza, driving on the Friday, I would have said: 'You are crazy, completely mad!' Everything since the middle of the season went quite quickly for me. But I am enjoying it. It is fun. I am driving a really fast car, so why not enjoy it?

"But at the moment I find myself going from weekend to weekend. I do not think about what is going to happen in two weeks, four weeks, or at the end of the season. Or what will be in two years? For me, I always try to focus on what is happening. I do not really care too much about what is coming.

"And I am still learning. I didn't have that much F1 experience before and it is very difficult on the Friday, because you have just two one-hour sessions, and so far I have had just three test days in-between. So for sure I will need some more time to learn the tracks, and to learn how to push and how to go that bit faster."

On karting and meeting Michael Schumacher

That Vettel's arrival in F1 has coincided with Michael Schumacher's departure has proved quite fitting for those wondering just who will become Germany's next superstar. It is no wonder that the Italian press have already labelled Vettel 'Baby Schumi.'

Vettel is no stranger to Schumacher, though, having met the seven-time world champion when he was just starting out in karting after competing at the famous kart track in Kerpen. Their friendship was sealed when Vettel began racing for one of Schumacher's former backers.

"The first kart race I ever participated in was close to where we lived, but I also did this German championship. We were a bit lucky because in the year I turned eight, in 1995, they created this 'Bambini' Series, this mini series. They had it in Italy for five years before and in Germany they were doing it for the first year. In the first year I was just on the limit age wise, but luckily I could race.

"So we did this German championship, and therefore got to go to Kerpen as well. At that time there was also this special Kerpen trophy, the NRW-Cup, and all five races were there. Michael (Schumacher) was the patron of it, and at the last round he came and waved the chequered flag and gave all the kids the trophies. I finished seventh in 1995, so I was the last guy to get a trophy for the race. That is the way I first got in contact with Michael.

"Before I started, my father did hill-climbing racing, and he was an F1 fan. He was always watching and mostly pushing for Ayrton Senna, and then at that time Michael came up from Germany and became the hero. Then the year after that I drove for a guy who used to help Schumacher, so that was how I got to know him."

On Little Britain

It is not very often that you can share a joke and laugh with an F1 driver about a cult comedy classic. Yet Vettel has already endeared himself to almost every British person in the paddock by admitting he is a huge fan of BBC Award-winning comedy 'Little Britain'.

You would imagine that the sideways glance of life in Britain would lose something in translation when transposed to other nationalities, and would especially be a world away from the typical German sense of humour.

But that has not stopped Vettel voting it as his favourite comedy series. He was recently overjoyed to be presented with the latest DVD of Series 3 by BMW-Sauber's press officer Ann Bradshaw - and he is currently counting down the days until he goes and sees the live show in London.

"I have some half-English friends at home and one day I was at their house and there was this programme on the television - Little Britain. I was able to understand it, even though sometimes it is quite hard. In general I understood it was funny, and before I flew to the Macau Grand Prix last year I was at Heathrow Airport and bought Series 1 and Series 2 on DVD. And now Ann just bought me Series 3. It is just perfect.

"My favourite characters are Andy and Lou. I want that one! But it not just them. It is Vicky Pollard, so many different characters. It is crazy. And in the new series there is a lot of new stuff. It is funny."

On other sports

Top sportsman have that annoying habit of not just being good at their chosen discipline - but being good at everything.

And sure enough Vettel could have chosen a career in football if he had wanted to. But racing won the day - as no other sport could provide him with the thrill and enjoyment like driving racing cars flat out.

"I am not as good at anything else as I am at racing. But when I was at school, and I only finished school this year, I was always playing with my friends some football, tennis and swimming. We just did the normal things. I tried this and that, even table tennis, everything for a few weeks or months. But then I lost the fun. With racing it was something I really enjoyed and it was fun all the time.

"I once joined a football club because I wanted to play, but it was just at the time I jumped into car racing so I didn't have much time. I have never actually played for them. But I am still a member of the club I think, because at the end of the year I saw I paid 10 Euros to them. And they always send me an invitation to their Christmas party."

On Ayrton Senna

Vettel was just six when Ayrton Senna was killed at Imola in 1994. Yet the German still singles out the Brazilian as one of the most important icons of his life.

He considers Senna's success at the 1991 Brazilian Grand Prix as one of his all-time favourite races, and even now he cannot believe his luck that he gets to work with the Brazilian's former physio, Josef Leberer, at BMW-Sauber.

"I had the chance to watch Senna on television because my father was a big fan of F1 and he liked Senna. The first race I remember of him, and I was only three or four years old so I don't remember everything, like which drink I had at the time, but it was in 1991 when he won the Brazilian Grand Prix for the first time.

"That was my favourite race. He was completely exhausted after the race and that was the reason I remember. They had the pull him out of the car and on the podium he was nearly collapsing.

"Then after that I remember he wanted to go to Williams and his crash. I was still quite young but I remember it, although to be honest it did not effect my life that much.

"When you are seven or eight years old you pick up so much stuff anyway. You go to school and you learn how to read, you do not learn how to walk, but you learn the other basics. I was enjoying watching F1 but at that time I did not really have an honest passion. I was not there sitting there in the shirt and buying the merchandise stuff because at that age you are just here, there and everywhere. It did not really have an effect.

"But now our physiotherapist, Josef Leberer, he was the former physio of Senna and now, whenever I think about Senna, I am asking him what he was like as a character and so on. I remember in Shanghai on Sunday night after the race, we were looking at YouTube. You type in Senna and there is so much stuff.

"We watched the Monaco on-board camera, his qualifying, his crash, and as soon as you see him do this stuff now it is so different to how it was then. I get goose bumps looking at it. At that time I was just too young to realise what happened to the sport and what happened in general."

On School

It is hard to imagine that Vettel is just out of school. The way he holds himself in the paddock, the way he has knuckled down to work with BMW-Sauber, all point to someone who has been well versed in the lessons of life.

But Vettel admits that he was far from being a model pupil at school, especially when it came to extra-curricular distractions.

"At school my best subject was sports. I was not a front-runner in lessons but wasn't the worst. I missed a lot of school for racing, of course, especially compared to a normal guy. If you miss the Thursday and the Friday over the last three years of school, when you are working to do the final exams in high schools, it is quite a lot. I missed on average 140 lessons per half year. If you are young and you miss that much then it can be important.

"I must say also that I was lazy. I was not always, but especially when you get a bit older you start looking for something else - and not just at school. Maybe your parents want you to focus on school, but there is always a left and a right option. And you start to look at girls.

"So I was quite lazy and I did not always do my homework. But as I said, I was not the best but I was also not the worst. I was above average you can say. I ended up 2.8 overall. I don't know what the equivalent is from another country. If you are one point something then you can study medicine, it is great. If you are 2.4 or 2.5 it is already good, and 2.8 is not bad. If you are three points it is not a disaster, you can still do something with your life. It is not lost."

on the price of being an f1 driver

Formula One and vast fortunes tend to go hand in hand right now, but Vettel has found Grand Prix racing to be quite an expensive exercise.

He may be earning a bit of money from BMW-Sauber for his duties, but his bank balance took a hit when he made history in Turkey by earning the fastest ever speeding penalty - just nine seconds into his career.

That $1000 fine had to come straight out of his bank balance, and he followed that up with another penalty at Monza two weeks later. Luckily his bank manager has been quite forgiving.

"I had to pay the fines myself. It was my fault, no? It wasn't the fault of the button, because the button was there. I have been really focused on not getting a penalty since then. We also have had some new stuff on the car, which has maybe been a bit of assistance for us all - but especially for me.

"The team have also brought me a new diagram of the steering wheel. Before I first drove the car they brought me a few bits of information, like they give you a map of the steering wheel to see which button is which. And after Turkey and Monza they brought me the 'Sebastian Vettel Steering Wheel Special.'

"They had the steering wheel in full colour, and then in the end there was only one button left - PL, the pit limiter. They had removed all the other buttons just for me. 'Here is your new steering wheel,' they joked. So I was really focusing after that on it.

"Also another funny thing happened at Monza. Robert (Kubica) and the team were watching me leaving the pits. I was always double checking the limiter in second practice. You can tell if the limiter is on because the refuelling cover opens. So as I was driving down the pits, and I was pushing the button on, off, on, off, on, off, on to check it works, the cover was going up and down. They team said afterwards that it was like I was waving goodbye to them.

"Unfortunately it all means I am minus in terms of money from being in F1. You could say I am a pay driver!"

On his friends

Formula One can be such a secular world at times that you sometimes forget people have real lives outside of it. Even world champions have normal friends just like you and me.

And Vettel is no exception to the rule - even if his exploits in F1 and the F3 Euroseries mean he is not able to see his friends as often as he would like. He has never boasted about his life back home, but he does admit now that some of his friends are mightily impressed they have an F1 driver in their midst.

"My friends have always seen me doing this racing thing, and I really liked it that they did not really care about what I was doing.

"Everybody knew I was doing racing, karting, motor racing, and when they asked me something I always answered the question. But I would never tell them off my own back about what happened at the weekends. You do have two or three mates that you always talk to, but in school it was school and racing was racing. It was like having two lives.

"When I started doing F3, some of them were watching TV and saw me. So they always had this nickname for me: 'F1 Driver', even though I wasn't in F1. It was like if someone was good at football, you would say, 'Ah look, Ballack is here,' or 'Ronaldinho is coming.' It is just taking the piss.

"That was mainly the thing that they were doing with me. It is kind of fun, it is normal. I wasn't kicked or something, it was just fun.

"Just before Shanghai I managed to find some free time because I was home for four days, and one evening I met with all my friends and we were playing indoor football for a few hours. That was quite fun because for the first time they were asking, 'hey, you met Boris Becker, how was he?'.

"All those sort of things, because they saw it on TV. It was quite funny. And they started joking, 'Oh look, here is Schumi'."

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- The Autosport.com Team

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