Sep 11, 2011
Sebastian Vettel scored his maiden F1 win here in 2008 with Toro Rosso. It was seven races later until Red Bull Racing enjoyed victory with him. For Seb’s front-end mechanic, Ole Schack, it was a special moment…
"It was at the 2009 Chinese Grand Prix. It all started with qualifying, which was extremely hectic. We realised after the first run that we had a reliability issue with Seb’s car, which limited the number of laps we could do. All Seb could see in his mirrors, was a load of mechanics huddled round the back of the car, but he was as calm as could be; there was no change in him. He knew that we could only do one run in each session and he just nodded and said: ‘yep, okay no problem’. When he went out on those runs all I wanted was not to hear any radio communication, as that meant everything was fine. The radio stayed silent and we kept watching the times. When you only have one chance, the pressure is really on. We were just stunned at what he was doing out there. With two minutes to go in Q3 he was in 10th place and hadn’t done a lap, but then he totally delivered. To go out and move from the bottom of the timesheet to the top was just incredible. He did it in Q2 and Q3 – bang; I don’t think there was ever any thought in his mind to do a safe run and put it sixth or whatever. When Sebastian feels the car is good he wants to get the maximum out of it and we’ll deal with the issues later. The spirit in the garage was great. Sometimes the cheer for qualifying is bigger than for a race win, as it’s so intense; you’re waiting for that last second when the flag falls. The whole garage absolutely erupted. I remember that I was clapping so hard that the little pin in my watch that holds on the strap, actually popped out! After the race, it was such a fantastic feeling. It was the first time I’d seen the car I work on win the top championship in motorsport and it was a very special and emotional feeling standing up in front of that podium. It had been a wet race and a mistake is so easy, but there were none and to have Mark, who drove a great race, coming home to make it a one-two, you couldn’t ask for more. We ran up to that podium at such speed, I’ve never seen guys move so fast. It was definitely one of the things that will stay in my mind forever. I’ve still got the photos from Autosport that show all of us on that day. It was a fantastic experience and something I will always remember."
Credit: Red Bull Racing Formula one Team (www.redbullracing.com)
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