For a man with a
BMW-Sauber testing contract in his pocket in mid-2007 and a reputation inexorably on the rise, jumping into F1 full-time with
Toro Rosso was a gamble this year, as Vettel recognises. Equally, it is a gamble that paid off – and now the former
F3 Euroseries runner-up is determined to prove the naysayers wrong again by turning what is on the surface a backwards step into a further progression of his career.
“Of course,” he confessed when asked if he had ever wondered if he had done the right thing in quitting his
BMW test role for the underperforming STR2B in the early stages of 2008, “but I wanted to race and when I was offered the
Toro Rosso cockpit there was no second of doubt in my mind that I would take it.
“Sure there was risk involved because at that moment
Toro Rosso wasn't a good team at all, but in the end my race appetite prevailed. If I had stayed with
BMW-Sauber I have no idea where it would have taken my career. Probably sometimes you have to take a step back in order to move several steps forward, so the decision was right. Hopefully I'll be able to say the same at the end of next season.”
