Vettel to stay with Red Bull till 2014

Sebastian Vettel - the next Schumacher?

It has been confirmed that Sebastian Vettel will remain with Red Bull Racing till the end of the 2014 season, the team announced on Monday. Vettel has been involved with the Austrian energy drink giant since 1998 and has raced in various junior formulae before entering F1 and then taking it by storm. After spells for the Red Bull Junior Team in Formula Three and Formula BMW, Vettel stepped into Formula 1 when the opportunity came to fill in for an injured Robert Kubica in 2007 at the BMW Sauber team. The very next season, Vettel was lapped up by Red Bull Racing’s sister outfit in F1 – Scuderia Toro Rosso for a full race seat in the 2008.

His skills have been appreciated all around the paddock ever since by F1 legends past and present, most referring to him as the next Michael Schumacher – an observation made keeping in mind not only his nationality but also Vettel’s extraordinary skills in the wet. That very season, Vettel became the youngest pole-sitter as well as race winner in F1 history when he dominated the Italian Grand Prix all weekend in less than competitive machinery. The achievement was good enough for Red Bull Racing to graduate Vettel to a full race seat with the senior team and the move paid off as he brought home RBR’s first ever race win in 2009 on his way to amassing four victories in the season and second place in the Drivers’ Championship. The 2010 season is fresh in everyone’s memories and Vettel’s feats don’t need to be re-iterated to lay emphasis to the fact that he is one of the best drivers that F1 has seen in recent times.

Vettel said he has chosen to stay with Red Bull Racing because he is extremely comfortable there. Do we see another Schumacher style camp being bred over at RBR with Vettel building and shaping the team around him? We may have in fact gotten a glimpse of the very same in the 2010 season itself when Vettel was given the new front wing while Webber had to make do with the older version at the British Grand Prix. Whatever be the case, one thing’s for sure – we’ll be hearing Vettel’s name quite often in the seasons to come! What needs to be seen is whether Vettel will be able to become the first driver in 5 years to successfully defend his title.