Here are some things you may or may not know about former Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel.
In an interview with F1 correspondent and presenter Lawrence Barretto, he learns more than ever about the media shy driver.
By the way, if you see that words like "sceptical" or "organising" are misspelled, he spelled them that way. It's most likely the European spelling of those words instead of American English spelling
He loves to take notes
"When you write with a pen, it's like you write it into your head"
Mario Thiessen, the man in charge of BMW at the time when Vettel was racing for Formula BMW, noted that Vettel would take notes about everything. He would scribble notes about every session and bring them to the following race. He was and still is a note taker. "In general, I love to take notes. I take digital notes with an iPad a bit now, but I prefer just pen and paper. When you write with a pen, it's like you write it into your head, you remember it. Also, these days, the hardware in the iPad or computer changes so often and while I'm very organised in life, with that stuff, I'm not so organised. So I don't have folders to keep for the next generation of computer/platform, and so a lot of the stuff gets lost. But if I write it down, I'm not going to chuck the notebooks away. I still have the notebooks from 2007 and so on. They're useless now, but they are still there. They are still stacked up in a bookshelf."
He has a love / hate relationship with technology
"It's designed to give you more time, but it actually does the opposite"
"I'm quite a fan of the written word. I get the whole point of emails but I think the actual letter is very nice and very personal." Vettel has a clear opinion on emails and technology. While he does acknowledge technology does makes things faster and better, he does say technological advances "are great, it has helped us to be so much faster and more efficient". He thinks it's a "fine line". To explain further, he means there is some negative impact. "A lot of the stuff is designed to actually steal your time to get you hooked. It annoys me, so I'm not a fan of that. Ultimately there is no solution, there is only yourself, and your behavior with the tools you have and the funny thing is that a lot of the stuff is designed to make life simpler and give you more time, but it actually does the opposite, it makes life complicated. I use the stuff, and I think some of the stuff is great, but sometimes I wish it didn't exist so there wouldn't be the temptation. So I think it's a fine line. It allows us to do a lot of stuff, so generally it's progressive and happy to go forward - I don't think we should go back to only pen and paper but I just think as a side effect, it speeds up life in areas where it shouldn't and that's not good for us, for the bigger picture, for our stress and our health."
His take on mobile phones
"If it's an emergency, you get a hold of people, but nowadays we treat everything as if it's an emergency"
Kimi Raikkonen, Vettel's former teammate but good friend is not a fan of phones either. It's particularly text messages that Raikkonen doesn't like. So if you plan on texting either one of these guys, don't expect a quick reply, you simply won't get it. Raikkonen is of the mindset that if someone has something dire that needs to be said, they will call. Vettel thinks the same way.
"How many times does your phone ring in a day? Almost never. And it's supposed to be a phone and now it's doing everything else. What I mean is, if it's an emergency, you get a hold of people, but nowadays we treat everything as if it's an emergency, but we actually don't act the same way about it. People send an email and they want a reply straight away, but it's not important. Not all the emails are important."
Considering the latest technology, such as the Apple iPhone? Does he have it? "I do. To be honest, the main motivator for that is the camera. I tried to go back to digital camera because I hated the fact you could do everything with your phone. I would say the coolest thing about phone is maps. I really love directions and stuff like this. And then the pictures, which allows you to capture a moment, especially with kids and so on. I think that's great. It's also very small. I went back to a digital camera, but it's quite clumsy to have in your pocket."
Why he avoids social media
"I have never tried it, so I'm not missing it"
Vettel is the only driver in Formula 1 not to have some sort of presence on social media. That even extends to the point of having apps to follow other people. The various forms of social media hold no interest for him. "I'm not big on apps, so I don't have lots of apps on phones. I don't do social media and also don't do the social media apps, so I'm not following other people."
"I never tried it and I think it's a good thing because a lot of people tell me they can't get away from it. I have never tried it so I'm not missing it. I've seen how it works with other people roughly and as far as I can tell, it's done in a way that obviously you're addicted. So yeah. Not for me."
He's a massive bookworm
"I have to finish it, because otherwise I feel guilty"
Vettel says he enjoys watching Netflix, but not often, like some people do. If has has the time, his preference is reading - which means reading actual newspapers or physical books rather than the electronic newspapers or books. "I'm a big fan of Sunday newspapers. I don't read news online, more newspaper. A lot of the news nowadays are just headlines, there's actually no content. Nothing against the journalists behind it, but it's mostly the headline, then it's repeating the headline, but actually no new information in the article. That's why Sunday newspapers or certain magazines are good - you know they have to do proper research. I read about all sorts. I don't like one particular subject. It's more about the people I find interesting. If this guy looks funny, I read the article. Of course the headline grabs you as well and then you read. But once I've started, I have to finish it. I have to finish the article, even if it bores me and it's stupid. I always hope it gets better, so I have to finish it, because otherwise I'd feel guilty. I shouldn't - that I haven't read the whole thing. I can't judge until I've read everything."
His attitude towards food
"When I was young, I just accepted it as fuel"
He's simple in his tastes for food. When he's at home, he prefers to cook his own food. One of his weaknesses is pancakes the way his mother used to make them. As he's grown up, his take on food had changed. "When I was young, I just accepted it as fuel. Being a sportsman, you get the fact it literally becomes fuel, you fuel your body to perform blah blah blah, so you try to get the best mix to enhance your performance and have a positive impact on your health. But going even further, I think there is more dynamics around this, as to where does the food come from? To become aware of what you're eating, not just which ingredients, how many calories and what it does to my body, but where does it come from? How was it grown? How was the animal grown/treated? That I find is not yet presented enough in our society, and should be. Now it's completely left to the consumer in a way. But I think there should be some way of organising where you take responsibility a bit away from the consumer, and equally the consumer should be educated more, awareness should be improved so you can make better decisions in a big picture."
Travelling often makes it hard to eat local. "Travelling is the b---- really, as you don't always have the time to look behind the scenes." When he's at home in Switzerland, he makes an effort to eat local and meet the local farmers. "I go to meet them, and see what they do. I want to first-hand convince myself, not that I'm super sceptical with everything, but you're more at peace with yourself. If you have seen it, if you see how it works, and you've spoken to the guy, and you think generally it stacks up, you can make a judgement."
He's unique
He possesses an eagle eye for details and that is what helps Vettel on the F1 grid and seen him take home 53 Grand Prix victories, 120 podiums and four World Championships. It's why he's usually the last driver to leave a circuit; he wants to talk to the team engineers, the team principals and so on. He's busy asking questions about the ins and outs of his car or the strategies the team principals or engineers have. Michael Schumacher, his hero, was successful. Vettel wants to be like him in that sense
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