Sebastian Vettel - man in a hurry joins F1 legends

AT 26, Sebastian Vettel is already a four-time world champion.

Sebastian Vettel

SEBASTIAN Vettel took six seconds to break his first record in Formula One and he has not stopped since.

Vettel has always been a young man in a hurry, as he proved by speeding in the pitlane on his first outing in a Formula One car during a grand prix weekend.

His offence at the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix test session cost him $1000 but he topped the timesheets.

On Sunday, there was no more than a slap on the wrist from race stewards at the Indian Grand Prix, who could barely resist the antics of a young man putting on a spectacular series of tyre-burning doughnuts to celebrate yet another victory, yet another World Championship and yet another record.

The timesheets were irrelevant and the rules abandoned as Vettel's Red Bull stood immobile, like some sort of mechanical deity in the middle of the Buddh International Circuit track. And Red Bull picked up the €21,000 ($30,221) fine for Vettel's determination to have fun.

GRAPHIC: Sebastian Vettel

The hi-jinks were the youngster's privilege. Here Vettel was, no longer the karting prodigy from Heppenheim who discovered he had more aptitude for racing than football, a sport he gave up because he could not stand being on the losing side.

At 26 he is a legend. Vettel has joined the greats, says Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal who has nurtured Vettel from precocious but messy youngster to ... well, one of the greats. Horner listed them: Juan Manuel Fangio, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher, the exclusive trio of drivers to win four titles that has now become a quartet.

This was the driver they nicknamed "The Crash Kid" in 2010 as Vettel careered around the tracks of the world; he still won the title, though. A year later, he messed up one corner from the end of the Canadian Grand Prix under pressure from Jenson Button and lost the race, but he won that 2011 title at a canter.

You would have needed a search party to scour through the smog of here to find an error in Vettel's drive to glory. It is all seamless now, a perfect combination of man and Adrian Newey-designed machine. Vettel's tribute to Newey's genius was an elaborate series of bows in front of his car until the pair came face to face. Vettel flung himself into Newey's arms and then Horner. The tears starting to flow.

Next was the phone call home to Norbert and Heiki, his parents, who had "sacrificed their lives" for him and brother Fabian. For once, the loquacious young man who can talk the hind legs off a Red Bull was speechless. The words tumbled out under questioning, not necessarily in the right order, as he attempted to comprehend the depth of his achievement.

"I struggle to understand it here and now," he said, pausing to bite his lip and regain the composure that has taken him to four titles. "To join people like Michael, Fangio, Prost ... it is too difficult to put it into perspective. I am way too young to understand what it means. I might be 60 one day and then understand and no one else will care but I will care and realise it is something no one can take away from me."

There was the fleeting moment of doubt during this curious grand prix plonked on a huge circuit on the industrial hinterland of Delhi, among the wandering sacred cows and meandering tuk-tuks. Mark Webber, Vettel's teammate, had stopped his car when his alternator failed. Vettel was told to switch off his KERS boost system to save electrical power and avoid the risk of a replica failure. He even had to stop pushing the switch to activate his drinks bottle.

If Vettel was thirsty, he made up for it with a magnum of champagne hidden beneath the desk as he revealed a sleepless night in his Delhi hotel, playing out the possible scenarios in his head, and a deep love for his sport and its statistics that often keeps him late at the track, writing endless reports tracing improvements in his RB9 and pushing his team to their limit to follow his quest for perfection.

"I know I have an important job out there driving the car, I am aware of that, but I am not selfish and taking all the credit myself," Vettel said. "I am very thankful for what these guys are doing. It is 100 per cent commitment.

"I spend a lot of time at the track, writing my reports, trying to give my feedback. I enjoy being here, spending time with people I know. If you have a negative mindset, you will have a bad time. Whether you finish first, second, 15th or last, it doesn't matter because it is something unique I get to feel and enjoy."

The champagne was almost finished but the cheers had not faded from the Buddh circuit as crowds of well-wishers gathered to congratulate the champion. The jeers that had chased Vettel halfway around the world were gone and almost forgotten.

"I don't blame the people who boo," Vettel said. "The most important thing is for me to get the respect of the people that I know and race against. I feel respected among the drivers. You have to fight for that."

THE TIMES