Earlier this week Jenson
Button, unaware of Vettel’s lambasting of the engine noise, told
drivers who are unhappy to stop complaining and race something else. But the
German does not seem capable of doing anything else. Born in the small town
of Heppenheim, in south west Germany, and now a resident in the Swiss
village of Walchwill with his long-term girlfriend Hanna Prater, and their
young daughter, Vettel’s determination to win, as well as his ruthlessness,
are not immediately obvious from relaxed conversation.
As he says himself, he is a “normal guy” – almost boring he admits – who
eschews the elaborate and glamorous lifestyle favoured by many of his racing
peers. He enjoys having a quiet time; keeping away from public events other
than those mandated by his various sponsorship duties. Indeed, in the way he
presents himself, and the way he is presented, with his love of his daily
runaround, a Volkswagen camper van, as well as his grasp of Monty Python,
there is something almost impish about the sport’s most illustrious driver,
still only in his eighth season.
“In the end I’m a normal guy,” Vettel says. “My job is probably not normal,
but I grew up with that, I fell in love with that when I was young, and I’m
still doing that. The time you spend with your friends is limited, so I just
like to hang around with them, have a drink, and have a laugh.”
The German’s amusing grasp of Anglo-American phrases then manifests itself.
“People always have the expectation, or they have the image of, ‘OK, he’s a
Formula One driver, he makes a lot of money, that’s why he has to live a
bling bling life’. Obviously nowadays you have plenty of tools to present
your life, also, in public. I’m not like that. I’m not a big fan of
presenting myself.
“I’m not a big fan of the bling bling life. I’m much happier to have a quiet
time with friends, and have a nice evening, and like I said, behave like an
idiot and do crazy things.”
Unlike some of his competitors, Vettel does not own a private jet – he hitched
a lift back from China with Bernie Ecclestone in the year of the ash cloud,
and cannot see himself buying a plane soon – and he does not have a public
museum collection to himself, unlike his biggest rival of recent seasons,
Fernando Alonso.
He says his biggest wish is to go out and “behave like an idiot without
anybody noticing”, but that is surely becoming harder and harder with the
fame his success has produced.
His private life is a subject he does his best to avoid as much as possible.
While he is polite enough to smile as he says he is “trying” to be a good
father, admitting having a child has “changed his priorities”, Vettel has
little more to add on the matter.
“It’s a complete different experience. But generally I have been quite
consequent in separating the basically the racing part and the private part,
and that’s why I don’t really want to talk about that.”
Some have criticised this image of the normal, private guy, who simply likes a
laugh and to watch his favourite football team, Eintracht Frankfurt – “we
just won last night” – as an elaborately crafted facade, constructed to hide
his instincts as a true racer.
But perhaps this is the enigma of Vettel. He is the relaxed, smiling person of
his childhood, but when the visor goes down he is a fearsome competitor; an
heir to Michael Schumacher, his ruthless hero and inspiration.
The latter side of his personality, including the trademark one-finger salute
his fellow drivers have become excruciatingly familiar with over the past
five years, is one which has made him disliked in some quarters.
“Some people are naturally more popular than others,” is his phlegmatic
riposte.
It is an unpopularity which reached its nadir this time last year in Sepang,
long before he went on to record nine straight victories.
Comments like, “Get Mark out of the way, he’s too slow”, jarred with the
public and with his off-track persona.
Ordered to hold station in second behind his then team-mate, Australian Mark
Webber, Vettel swept past to seize the victory he believed was rightfully
his.
Despite an initially confused response, and a chorus of boos which greeted him
on several podiums last year – unsurprisingly he was booed in qualifying at
the opening race in Melbourne – Vettel continues to hold no regrets.
“Everything I said, I’m very happy with. I think what I did at the time was
correct.”
And while he has previously revealed his “hurt” at being booed after winning a
race, he is not interested in winning over those people, or proving he can
win in poor machinery (his maiden win in a Toro Rosso in 2008 is often
overlooked in this regard).
“I don’t feel like I have to prove anything to anyone. If anything I have
something to prove to myself, still, and I’m happy to do that. This has been
like that since as long as I can remember. I’m going out, trying to be
fastest and not be 10th, fifth or second. But you cannot always win.”
As he returned to his Swiss home amid a torrid pre-season, to cast his eye
over his four championship-winning cars, and a trophy cabinet he has rapidly
outgrown – “it’s a nice problem to have,” is his assessment – he must have
been wondering where it had all gone wrong.
But Red Bull have made a spectacular turnaround. They are not as far adrift as
many had predicted. If Vettel is eventually able to haul in the Mercedes,
with his car’s inferior Renault hybrid engine, few would doubt him then.
While he may criticise the sport’s new, greener agenda, it is plain that he
does really “love” Formula One, even with all its trappings and excess.
The “maturing” Vettel admits he is not “political” enough for team management,
and racing is patently the only thing which truly makes him tick.
“It depends how you look at the circus – the way I look at it, is it’s mostly
racing. The fact that you are competing against the best in the world, you
are racing in the best cars in the world. At the moment they don’t sound
very good, but generally thought it’s Formula One. It’s the pinnacle of
motorsport.
“It’s what I was dreaming of when I was a young boy. I have to say it’s
everything I ever dreamt of, if not better. It’s not the way I look at
things. Of course I complain, I’m German after all, but we all have the
chance to be happy.”