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By the time he reached his twenties, Sebastian Vettel had already been racing for 12 years. After kick starting his career in 1995 at a local kart track in his native Germany, it wasn’t long before Vettel had notched up several regional championships. Soon tiring of the local competition, however, he began to race on a European level.

Before long he’d won the region’s junior kart title and even clinched victories at prestigious annual events in Monaco and Paris-Bercy. As the German began to make a name for himself, he attracted the attentions of Red Bull, who swiftly signed him up to their young driver programme in 1998.

With Red Bull’s backing, Vettel continued to perform well and in 2000 was invited to join the Austrian drinks company’s junior team. Two seasons of karting later, Vettel - then aged just 15 - was ready to make the switch to single-seater racing. Making his debut in the hugely-competitive Formula BMW series in 2003, Vettel faced a tough challenge, but he didn’t disappoint, scoring five wins and ending the season second in the championship.

During his second season, however, he went one better, winning 18 victories from 20 events. In fact he was so dominant he took the title with a massive 124-point advantage. Once champion, he wanted a fresh challenge and decided to move to the Formula Three Euro Series. Despite the switch, his strong links with BMW remained and in September 2005 he was invited to test a BMW Williams Formula One car.

Though he failed to take the title during two seasons in F3, Vettel continued to make an impact and, in August 2006, was BMW Sauber’s first choice to replace third driver Robert Kubica, who had been promoted to a race seat following Jacques Villeneuve’s sudden departure.

Though many in the Formula One paddock hadn’t heard of him, Vettel was keen to make an immediate impression. He succeeded. After finishing his first practice session on top of the timesheets, Vettel didn’t look back and notched up a series of successful Friday outings for the German-Swiss team. When the season finished, it came as no surprise that BMW Sauber decided to retain Vettel for 2007.

He combined his Formula One testing commitments with impressive performances in the World Series by Renault, before getting an unexpected race call-up for the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis, standing in for an injured Kubica. He acquitted himself in style, eighth place making him the youngest man ever to score a world championship point. Less than two months later he was rewarded with a full-time race seat with Toro Rosso, replacing departing American Scott Speed from the Hungarian round onwards. He scored the team's best ever result with a fourth place in China and was retained for 2008.