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Sebastian Vettel: Already A Legend?

There have been great formula one racers from the past that have stood out in history: Juan Manuel Fangio, Aryton Senna, Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher. These drivers, among other champions, have grazed the world with their fantastic ability to win world championships and become famous.

However, there might be another driver who could take his name to the list, and if he gets his way this weekend in Japan, it could happen. Sebastian Vettel is only one win away and considering his closest rival finishes eighth or worse, the German will win his fourth world title, surpassing Senna and equaling Prost. This will make him the third or fourth (depending how you like Prost) best driver of all time.

Vettel, like Schumacher, was from the same western part of Germany. Schumacher, from Kerpen, near Cologne, Vettel from Heppenheim, farther down the country. Both began their careers in Karting, and with luck and above all, talent, moved up the motorsports ladder. Schumacher became more popular with the sports car team Sauber, which later entered formula one. He managed to win the world title with the Swiss team, and eventually moved into formula one. For Vettel, he never really had to touch sports cars, and took a risk by testing for Sauber when it had BMW as a partner. Vettel did very well in the top eight in his first race for the Swiss/German unit, at the United States Grand Prix when it was held in Indianapolis. Eventually, it got him the first F1 drive of his career by taking on the role at Toro Rosso.

However, it was with this team that Vettel won his first grand prix, and this was the only time the Faenza unit won a race, which was at Monza in 2008. From that moment on, Vettel moved on to where he is today at the Red Bull Racing team.

His tough team relationship with Australian Mark Webber as his current teammate has been not wonderful, and despite the work, it’s friendship has been only mediocre, Webber himself figured that it was not great enough to remain for next season and decided to go into sports cars with Porsche. Next season is also a quite different idea, as another Aussie, Toro Rosso’s Daniel Riccardo just like Vettel years ago, will now move up the Red Bull ladder and drive for the senior team. Vettel might be hoping that this driver from down under will not give him as much problems as his predecessor, and that the work can be better than it was.

However, it will come down to the day when if Vettel keeps becoming a champion driver that he is, just as much as Schumacher found out that his time will run out, and he will have a challenger who can take him on and defeat him. Schumacher found this out in the form of Fernando Alonso, who won two straight titles after Schumacher obliterated the field in 2004.

No one knows who can challenge Vettel yet, but Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and perhaps Kimi Raikkonen can change things around. Vettel, for his German nature, is quite humorous and can already state that he is nowhere near the personality of his former German champion. However, Vettel can, at times when things go wrong, is very selfish as we all found out in Malaysia, and can get very frustrated when he begins to have problems.

But whether this occurs sooner than later, it does not matter that there is a champion now that we are witnessing today that can become a legend in his own time just like the other racers that he has followed in history.

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