Vettel to steer Infiniti’s performance

FORMULA one star Sebastian Vettel has joined Japanese car-maker Infiniti in a new role as its director of performance.

The Red Bull Racing pilot officially became involved with Infiniti in 2011 but, following his circuit successes, Infiniti was keen to extend his role and plough his track experience in to its road car range.

The three-time world champion was closely involved with the development of the Infiniti Q50 sedan and would continue to oversee the performance of future models in his new position, Infiniti said.

Honing the performance of the Q50 and earlier FX “Vettel Edition” soft-roader took place at locations including Germany’s Nurburgring and Spain’s Catalunya race circuit, with both Vettel and Infiniti Red Bull reserve driver Sebastien Buemi pushing the cars to their limits.

Infiniti hopes that enhancing Vettel’s relationship with the company will improve the chassis dynamics, performance and handling of all new models.

Vettel said exploiting the performance of the Q50 was very different to piloting an F1 car “but I approached it in exactly the same way”.