Perhaps most importantly, Kerpen is where Vettel met Gerhard Noack, president
and part-owner of the circuit. The man who famously ‘discovered’ Schumacher.
A former hobby karter himself, Noack recalls that first race in 1995.
“Suddenly it started to rain,” he says. “Everyone else went on to wet tyres
with only Sebastian driving on slicks. He really stood out..”
As well he might have done. Vettel had been karting since the age of three,
when his father Norbert gave him a 60cc machine to “keep him off the
streets”.
In one of those quirks of fate which enter into sporting folklore, Vettel Snr
had to douse the front drive with water since the only way to get around one
of the corners was by skidding around it. All those hours spent lapping an
artificially-soaked courtyard had paid off.
From that day on Noack kept a close eye on Vettel, acting as mentor and
friend, making sure he got the right equipment, met the right people, just
as he had for Schumacher.
It was Noack who facilitated Vettel’s meetings with Red Bull, for whom he
signed as a 13 year-old, and BMW, for whom he first raced in 2007 before
they let him go to Toro Rosso.
“I put a lot of time and effort, 10 years, trying to pave the way for
Sebastian,” Noack recalled after Vettel claimed his maiden title in
thrilling fashion Abu Dhabi last year.
“In 1997, I even rented my business to have more time for Sebastian. I was
convinced already then that he would be a world champion. It is of course a
moving moment when you say: ’Yes, the investment was worth it.”
And had he become rich off the back of it, he was asked. “No and nor do I want
any [money]. Because then it’s business, then perhaps it’s no fun to
myself.”
What it has done, though, is make Noack uniquely well qualified to comment on
the rise and rise of Formula One’s latest superstar.
We meet on the Sunday between the Singapore and Japanese grands prix, in early
autumn sunshine, at the track in Kerpen where Noack still runs a
bambini-karting team, searching for more little Schumachers.
Somewhat surprisingly, given his relentless schedule, the real deal is here.
Schumacher is wandering about the place with his shirt off, wheeling a
mountain bike.
Fans and locals mill about in the sunshine, eating currywurst and drinking
beer on the terrace of the kartbahn café, the interior of which is crammed
with pictures and memorabilia.
No one bats an eyelid when the great man walks past. “It is one of the few
places Michael can really relax and be himself,” Noack remarks.
It turns out Schumacher, a millionaire hundreds of times over, is actually
staying in a camper van in a field just behind the circuit.
Only a gleaming red Ferrari parked incongruously outside hints at the van’s
illustrious occupant. It says a lot, both about Kerpen and Schumacher that
the seven-time champion should choose to spend a rare weekend off in this
fashion.
Vettel visits less often these days, Noack says, but not because he is a big
shot. Yes, he lives in Switzerland now in a big farmhouse but he has not
forgotten his roots.
Far from it. He, too, stayed in a campervan with his Dad, his brother and a
friend at winter testing earlier this year. He still attends Eintracht
Frankfurt matches, incognito, with old school mates.
Vettel was back in Kerpen this summer for the first time in two or three years
to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the club. Schumacher beat him in a
10-lap exhibition race.
“I guess Michael showed me who’s boss,” Vettel said afterwards.
“He hadn’t changed a bit,” Noack smiles. “Very humble. That is a product of
his family. They were always there — father, mother, sisters — at every
race, in the family campervan. They never had any airs.”
Just a strong work ethic apparently. The young Vettel printed out a Lance
Armstrong quote and put it on the wall next to his bed: “For every single
victory I paid with gallons of sweat.”
Once, so the story goes, Vettel became angry when his sister Stephanie went
quicker than him in the family kart. He refused his lunch and stayed out
until he had set a better time.
“Sebastian’s greatest strength is that he never gives up, just like Michael,”
Noack says. “He has an insatiable desire to learn and he doesn’t repeat the
same mistakes.”
Vettel (who has always politely rejected the ‘Baby Schumi’ tag) certainly
appears to have upped his game this season. Unlike 2010, when he was dubbed
the ‘Crash Kid’ by McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, 2011 has been
virtually blemish-free.
Gone, too, is the occasional petulance which punctuated last year, replaced by
a seemingly unflappable coolness. Partly that is down to being put under
little or no pressure, partly the 24 year-old’s increasing maturity both in
and out of the car.
Not that everyone has been won over. As he stands on the brink of his second
world title, Vettel is universally respected, widely liked, but perhaps not
yet loved. Sure he is cool, he is young, he fits Red Bull’s brand, but to
some he remains oddly anodyne.
Maybe it cannot be helped. Behind the easygoing, fun-loving exterior, the
driver who gives his race cars racy names (current model: Kinky Kylie),
quotes Fawlty Towers and takes his mechanics out for pizza, is an intensely
private individual.
Vettel is extremely protective of his family and particularly his girlfriend
Hanna, a fashion design student with a British father who he met at school
in Heppenheim. His private life remains strictly off limits.
It makes for an interesting comparison with our own karting prodigy, Lewis
Hamilton, whose private life — the Pussycat Doll, the visits to LA — is
under so much scrutiny and whose heart-on-sleeve behaviour tends to polarise
opinion.
“It seems that Lewis has lost the control about his self, his priorities have
shifted and maybe he looks too many times to the errors in others,” is
Noack’s observation.
“Maybe he has too many distractions. Sebastian loves and lives his job. That’s
what makes him so successful.”
We have run out of time. I have to leave for the airport. Out on track the
final race of the day is about to take place. It is being run in memory of
Tommy Knoppen, a young Danish karter who died in an accident two years ago.
It is a tribute both to him and to the pull of Kerpen that the assembled field
is so strong Schumacher has qualified only seventh. I hear later that the 42
year-old recovered to finish fourth. Still no podium but you have to admire
the energy.
Behind the barriers the young karters, flushed from their earlier exertions,
jostle for position. One day, perhaps, they too will follow in the footsteps
of Kerpen’s kings.