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Vettel, one of four children was born on July 3, 1987 in Heppenheim, Germany to Norbert and Heike Vettel. His father was a keen racer competing in various hill-climb events. An indifferent student his childhood heroes were “The three Michaels” – Michael Schumacher, Michael Jordan, and Michael Jackson. Vettel started amateur karting at the young age of 3½ and began racing in 1995, at the age of eight. Having shown talent at an early age, he was accepted into the Red Bull Junior Team at age 11. He was immediately successful and won various titles, including the Junior Monaco Kart Cup in 2001. In 2003, he was promoted to open-wheel cars and won the 2004 German Formula BMW Championship with 18 victories from 20 races. Having impressed in his first season of auto racing in 2003, Vettel was given a chance by Derrick Walker to test a Reynard Motorsport Champ Car in a two-day private test at the Homestead road course.
In September 2005 he was invited to test a BMW Williams Formula One car. The following August he was BMW Sauber’s first choice to replace third driver Robert Kubica, who had been promoted to a race seat following Jacques Villeneuve’s sudden departure from the team.
