Vettel sad: 'I have to recover from this news'

In the early years, Red Bull Racing was a modest team, with no absolute top drivers. Even drivers like Robert Doornbos managed to secure a seat with the team. But Dietrich Mateschitz's ambitions were bigger than competing in the middle of the pack. The team had to win titles. With Sebastian Vettel, it succeeded for the first time.

In the end, the German captured four world titles with Red Bull. Vettel thus owes a significant part of his career to the man who died on Saturday. After qualifying for the American Grand Prix, Vettel spoke to Autobild about Mateschitz. "It is a big shock for everyone who has been part of his journey and I am still a bit shocked. I need to recover first," said Vettel, who was full of emotion, according to the German medium.

Vettel says he has purely nice and good memories of the Austrian. "I was very young at the time. But the fact that he always treated me as an equal and with a lot of respect, I learnt to appreciate that more and more later on," the Aston Martin driver explained. "I think he was a very special person who always managed to do what others thought was not possible - no matter in what respect."