Boy king Vettel on track for F1 crown

by Tim Collings

FORMULA ONE: LONDON, April 10, 2010; - Sebastian Vettel may have predicted that the fight for the world championship will go all the way to the wire, but few close observers of the sport have taken that claim seriously.

After only three races of the new season, the 22-year-old German is already showing the speed, composure and style of a future champion in a car that has set the pace at every event.

So far, his and the Red Bull team's only weakness has been mechanical reliability - a failing that appeared to be overcome with some ease last weekend as they streaked to a commanding one-two triumph at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Vettel delivered his first win this season and the sixth of his brief career since storming into the record books.

His Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber chased him home, but like many other rivals always appeared to be caught in the slipstream of a natural near-genius at the wheel.

Vettel, after all, holds virtually all the records for youth in F1 - he was the youngest driver to take part in a Grand Prix weekend (he was just 19 in Turkey in 2006), the youngest to score points, the youngest to lead a race, the youngest to take pole, and then to win, (both with Toro Rosso at the rain-hit 2008 Italian Grand Prix) and more.

On top of that, he has a disarmingly cheeky charm to match his demeanour as a baby-faced racing assassin who takes no prisoners on the track. Alongside him, Webber looks like a driver from not only a different generation, but a different era.

Vettel is the kid of his age for F1 - from his untrained curly mop of hair to his easy understanding of technology, engineering and languages.

He is the boy who has nicknamed all his Red Bull cars - firstly Kate, then Kate's Dirty Sister and finally, for 2010, Luscious Liz - and has back-stories to explain all.

"I like to treat ladies well," he once joked.. His first winner, at Monza, was dubbed Julie.

In Australia, among paddock regulars, he is known for his knowledge of dirty jokes sourced from the building industry and has inexhaustible fund of wit. Even at his home race, Webber is hard-pushed to keep the boy in check. "If I could design a superstar, Sebastian would be the result," said Bernie Ecclestone, the F1 commercial ringmaster.

"He is exactly what formula one needs: a young, super-talented driver who is intelligent but not arrogant, popular with the public and good with the media, normal but still very professional."

It is true that the opening races have seen three different winners - Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, defending champion Jenson Button of McLaren and then Vettel - but it is true also that, with a little better reliability, Vettel would have won all three.

Webber, disgruntled to finish second after starting from pole, praised the Red Bull team's "awesome spirit" and unity.

As a number two, to the dazzling Vettel, he is as robust and competitive as they come. And his sheer competitiveness will ensure Vettel is pushed all the way.

Another Vettel win next Sunday (April 18) in the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai could propel him ahead of Ferrari's Felipe Massa at the top of the title race.

"Last year is last year, this year is this year," said Vettel when reminded that it was in China that he scored his maiden win for Red Bull.

AFP