everyone else. It has become all very unpredictable… But yes, consistency remains the key to winning both championships [drivers’ and constructors].’ Vettel is happy to be back in the game after his holiday and even more delighted to be at Spa, a track where he has tasted success in the past. ‘This circuit is defi ned by the surrounding nature. I love it! I was happy to have won here last year. The diff erence in altitude and the unpredictable weather really make it a big challenge. It’s one that every racing driver loves to compete on. It’s good to be back after the summer break,’ says the champion, who took time out from his holiday to shoot a special photograph in aid of London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. His photo, called The Red Wall Mountain, is part of the Zoom Charity project. The print of the photograph taken in Vorarlberg in Austria, where he and his family used to go skiing during the school holidays, will be auctioned. ‘It’s an awesome view! I know the area really well. I love to go to the region on holiday and it really is a home away from home.’ Photography is not his only off -track passion. He is also a keen designer and spends hours working on new designs for his crash helmets. The talk in the paddock is that he only ‘retires’ a helmet design after he has won a race with it, but Vettel says that’s not entirely true. He has too much fun experimenting with new designs that he makes changes whenever he fi nds time. Some of his helmets have become collector’s items. Veteran Brazilian F1 racer Rubens Barrichello, who boasts one of the largest helmet collections, recently Tweeted: ‘Great surprise when I received a 72—GW B R U S S E L S Vettel im Sommer <strong>2012</strong> beim Training auf der Grand-Prix-Rennstrecke in Spa Vettel during practice at the Spa Grand Prix Circuit in summer <strong>2012</strong> ‘I think the pressure is always there to deliver good results and to win races and championships’ helmet that was missing in my collection. Thanks Vettel.’ Vetttel’s design skills are not confi ned to crash helmets. His artistic fl air came in handy when he was asked by Red Bull’s Japanese motor manufacturing partner Infi niti to redesign their sport utility vehicle (SUV), the Infi niti FX50. In the process he became the only F1 driver to design a road car. A limited 150 of the Infi niti FX Vettel Version went on sale in Europe, the Middle East and America at the end of <strong>2012</strong>. ‘It was exciting because it’s not every day that you get to design a road car. For me it was important that the car had a sporty look and feel, which was inspired by my day job driving an F1 car. I worked closely with the exterior and interior designers. It’s an interesting process to sit down and discuss in detail what you could achieve and a great pleasure to see the end result.’ But how happy is he with the end product? ‘My version is lighter, more aero-effi cient and more powerful than the original FX,’ says the man who these days can aff ord to buy almost any car he desires but prefers to drive his own creation. In a sport where money matters more than any other, Vettel did not, like so many other F1 drivers, ascend to a racing seat through wealth. Born on 3 July 1987 he took an interest in go-cart racing from the age of four. In the early days his father made use of a disused trailer from the local fi sh market to haul the young Vettel’s go-cart from racetrack to racetrack. The whisper in the paddock is that some of the rich kids on the cart circuit made derogatory remarks about the Vettel family’s ‘fi sh trailer’ but were soon silenced when they found that it was the young Vettel that made the top step of the podium his own. By the age of eight he had more medals and trophies to keep shiny than any of his rivals, showing a natural ability to extort speed from anything he drove. At the tender age of 14 he won the Junior Monaco Kart Cup, which earned him the opportunity to upgrade to openwheel racing. He then won the 2004 German Formula BMW Championship, and earned a promotion to the F3 Euro Series. There he attracted enough attention to be asked to test for F1 teams Williams and BMW Sauber. His fi rst test drive for BMW Sauber in Turkey in 2006 saw him set the fastest time in the second Friday free practice, a feat he repeated in Italy later that year. This earned him a permanent job as BMW’s test driver in 2007 and the opportunity to race at the United States Grand Prix where Vettel, at the age of 19, became the youngest person to score a world championship point. Since moving to Red Bull in 2009, the records have kept on tumbling. Judging by the sheer determination Vettel has showed since Spa to claw his way back into contention for the <strong>2012</strong> title, there is little doubt that this young German will keep putting his name to world titles and records. Getty Images
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