After one of the shortest rises to prominence in the history of the sport, Sebastian Vettel has become Formula 1's youngest world champion. Edd Straw charts his progress through the ranks and talks to some of those whose influence ensured his success

It's not unusual for a journalist, or anyone else who works in motorsport for that matter, to be told that such-and-such a driver is the next big thing. But when you get one person, then another, then another dropping the same name into conversations, you start to take notice. The name Sebastian Vettel kept cropping up during his early days in car racing to anyone with connections in German motorsport.

At that stage, he was regarded by the wider world as just another young driver with a good karting CV (and there are plenty of those), but as he racked up five victories in his rookie season in the German Formula BMW Championship in 2003, a picture began to form of a potential superstar.

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