MOTORSPORT: Sebastian Vettel calls time on F1 career
Ricciardo, Alonso and Schumacher in the frame for four-time world champion’s Aston Martin seatFour-time world Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel is set to retire from the sport’s elite level at the end of this season.
The 35-year-old German, a popular figure within the F1 driver ranks and winner of 53 Grands Prix, noted a desire to spend more time with his young family and interests outside the sport.
“It’s probably still very difficult to grasp the size of the decision, because this is the life I know, this is the life I have known since I was a child, and it gives you a lot of security just to know that when the season starts, when the season ends, where the next race is,” said Vettel following his announcement.
“There’s a certain routine in that even though every race is different, it’s a different challenge, and so on and so on.
“But it’s probably also true that I’ve done this so long, I’ve got so much experience, it’s not so difficult to just carry on.
“But my way or interpretation of doing this is doing it at 100 per cent, I know how much I can give and dedicate to this sport in order to also achieve the things I want to achieve.
“And it also takes a lot of time, time that you have to, in the beginning, take away from nowhere else, because there is nothing else.
“But since I grow and things grow around me, my children are growing, it’s time away from them, and time away from other interests that I’ve grown, and at some point you reach a point where it maybe doesn’t feel as clear about the next year, and the truth is, it’s been a process over several years.”
Successful throughout his formative years in karts, Formula BMW, Formula 3 and Formula Renault, Vettel burst onto the F1 scene in 2006 as a third driver for Sauber, before replacing the injured Robert Kubica at the 2007 US GP, in which he finished eighth on debut.
Rounding out the season at Scuderia Toro Rosso, he broke through for the former Minardi squad at a sodden Monza to claim the Italian Grand Prix in 2008.
Elevated to the lead Red Bull Racing squad for 2009, four wins followed en route to second in the final standings.
The Sebastian Vettel era of the sport then kicked off in earnest, with the German claiming four straight F1 titles between 2010 and ’13, registering 34 wins in that time, including a run of nine successive triumphs to round out his last championship-winning season.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, however, as battles with teammate Mark Webber at times boiled over, including at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix, when the pair came to blows on track, as well as at Malaysia in 2013, when Vettel ignored team orders to snatch victory in the infamous ‘Multi 21’ saga.
The new hybrid formula for 2014 saw Renault off the pace, before Vettel moved to Scuderia Ferrari from 2015 to ’20, a stint which produced 13 further wins, and second in the season standings twice.
The announcement is one of the first pieces of the F1 silly season to fall into place, and with other moves still to play out, it may be crucial in allowing reigning F2 champ, Australian Oscar Piastri, to find his way onto the 2023 F1 starting grid.
Vettel’s current Aston Martin squad is led by chairman Lawrence Stroll, with his son Lance having driven for the outfit dating back to its Racing Point F1 Team origins in 2019, and early rumours placing Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso or Mick Schumacher in the team’s open seat.
The Formula 1 season continues this weekend with the Hungarian Grand Prix from the Hungaroring, an event that Vettel has won twice, in 2015 and ’17.
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