Sebastian Vettel: Special one 2.0

In 2004,well in the heart of the Michael Schumacher era and a year before the first of the five world champions on the current starting grid had won a Formula 1 title (Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel,incidentally,were yet to sit in an F1 cockpit at this point),author Ian Stafford released an engaging and effortlessly funny book on the sport called ‘Who Do You Think You Are… Michael Schumacher?’

For the first 314 pages,various personalities — mostly past and then present-day drivers — tell Stafford just why there never will be a force quite like Schumacher ever again. Or for that matter,never has there been even one in the past. Not Senna. Not Fangio. Not Prost. Each page until then tells you just why everything about Schumacher is,was and will ever be far superior than the field — his will,his drive,his skill,his hunger,his professionalism,his acumen. Did we mention hunger?

Then on the 315th leaf,20 pages away from the end,Stafford meets petrolhead Gerhard Noack,a chain-smoking owner of a kart-parts shop in Kerpen,Germany. As a part-time hobby,Noack had trained in the local kart club an eight-year old Schumacher. And his brother Ralf. And Heinz-Harald Frentzen. And Nick Heidfeld. All future F1 drivers. “But none of them were in Michael’s league,” Noack says in the book. “You could see it then and,of course,you can see it now.”

Writes Stafford: “In the twenty years that Schumacher left Kerpen,Noack has only come across one talent who reminds him of Michael. He is 16 and currently karting in Europe. ‘I urge you to look out for him,’ Gerhard advised. ‘His name is Sebastian Vettel.’”

Know it all

This was 2004,the year Schumacher won his fifth consecutive and seventh over-all world title — the 8,848m of motorsport. This was 2004,two years before Vettel auditioned for a role as BMW Sauber’s test driver,three years before his first Grand Prix start and over half a decade before he won his first world title,at 23,to become the sport’s youngest champion. But somehow,Noack knew. Enough for him to sit back in his shop,puff on a cigarette and give the best four-word interview when a German website came calling about Vettel’s achievements last month.

“Ich tolt sie so,” Noack said. He indeed told us so.

On Sunday at the Indian Grand Prix,a top-five finish for Vettel will assure him his fourth consecutive world title. At 26,he will be the youngest to achieve a career quadruple. It will take him to second on the all-time list,tied with Juan Manuel Fangio and Alain Prost. Few are betting against it,considering that inside his infallible Red Bull this year,the German has won the last five races and has stood a total of nine times on the top step of the podium.

In his career so far,Vettel has started 116 races and won 35 of them. To put this in perspective,Jenson Button,the 2009 world champion,won his maiden race in his 114th appearance. For this and plenty of such ludicrous feats,Germany’s ‘Little Schumi’,as he was known when he first drove for Toro Rosso back in 2007,has now simply been labelled by the media back home as ‘Racing God’.

“I’m no God,but a normal human,” Vettel,perhaps F1’s first humble world champion,once said. But the greatest compliment that has ever come his way,one that must surely make Vettel smile in private,was delivered by a contemporary and a rival,Lewis Hamilton.

Mirroring Schumi

Last month,following Vettel’s Korea win,the fourth in succession,Hamilton,the 2008 world champion and now a Mercedes driver,called Vettel’s dominance as ‘boring.’ Thus far,that word had been reserved for only one previous champion’s reign over the sport — Schumacher’s.

Speaking at an event in Noida on Wednesday,Hamilton was quick to defend his statement. “I have been very vocal on the subject of this dominance,” he said. “For me,personally,dominance is not enough. The most important thing is true,wheel-to-wheel racing with plenty of opportunities to overtake. That is why I became a Formula 1 driver in the first place. That’s why I began karting all those years ago,as an eight year old in Britain.”

These were no doubt important factors for two eight-year olds in Germany,too,But for these two kids,as pointed out by Noack,the thrill of racing wasn’t everything. The thrill of winning was.

Which is why when Schumacher and Vettel grew out of their karts and competed in F1,their hunger and their will to succeed at any cost was just the same. Which is why when their eras of dominance had begun to mirror each other,despite competing in two very different epochs of the sport,the same kart-parts shopkeeper in Kerpen,Germany,chewed on a cigarette and said: “I told you so.”