Sebastian Vettel announced on Thursday (28) that he will retire from Formula One at the end of the season, and explained how the process was for him to make the decision to retire from the category
Sebastian Vettel announced on Thursday (28) that he will retire from Formula 1 at the end of the season. The four-time champion posted a video on his Instagram explaining his decision, and putting family and fighting for sustainability as prioirities in his life. The Aston Martin driver still has ten more races to go until the Abu Dhabi GP in November, which will be his 300th and last race.
This weekend Vettel is committed to the Hungarian GP, where he finished second last year but was disqualified. Asked how long he had been thinking about making the decision to retire, the four-time champion revealed that he had it in mind for a few years now, and felt that this was the right time.
"When? In the last few years, actually. I don't think it's a question that you ask yourself and find an answer and that's it. I think I understood early on that this is a decision that changes your life," Sebastian told British channel Sky F1.
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▶️ Sebastian Vettel: A Career in Numbers
"It's hard to know how much it's going to change, because I'm turning the corner not knowing what to expect, but I think it's like that for any athlete, regardless of the sport, whether it's by choice or forced because of injury or external factors. It's something we're all going to face. For me, I feel that this is the right time," explained the four-time champion.
Unlike other drivers and athletes, Vettel did not take his age and his body into account when making his decision. The Aston Martin driver reinforced his desire to spend more time with his family and to shift his focus from the track to life off it.
"It's true, and I don't feel old or limited physically to do what I need to do. But it's a lot of things, and I know how much you can dedicate to this sport and how intense it can be. And that means there's no room left for other things, and I can't ignore them anymore," Vettel said.
"They are growing up, literally. I have kids, they are getting bigger and taller and stronger mentally. So there are things I don't want to ignore, I want to take care of. At the end of the day, I can decide what to do and you know the choice now," concluded the German.
Vettel currently occupies 14th position in the Drivers' World Championship, with 16 points earned. Formula 1 returns this Sunday (31), for the HungarianGrand Prix, with complete coverage byGRANDE PRÊMIO. The 13th round of the World Championship will be the last before the traditional European summer break.
Vettel's career
Even though he wasn't one of the main drivers in the 'Drive to Survive Era', which brought so many new fans to the World Championship, Vettel's career is one of the most impressive of all time in more than 70 years of F1.
Since he entered the grid and made his debut in the 2007 US GP, already in the final part of the season, then aged 20, Vettel has competed 289 races and has 11 more to go. Thus, he will reach 300 GPs. In this period he won 53 races, was on 122 podiums, scored 57 poles, and won four world titles. Numbers of a historical heavyweight.
Sebastian is tied with Alain Prost as four-time world champion, behind only three other drivers with more achievements; he is the youngest driver in history to win and pole in the same weekend (122 races).He is the youngest driver in history to have pole position and victory in the same weekend (21 years and 73 days, Italian GP 2008), and the youngest in history to have pole position, victory, and fastest lap (21 years and 353 days, British GP 2009).
He is, together with Nigel Mansell in 1992, the driver with the most wins starting from pole in a single year (nine, 2011). Vettel is the third driver with the most wins and laps led, the fourth with the most poles, and the seventh with the most races in history.
Despite his start at BMW, Vettel did only eight races in the season - the first on loan from Red Bull, but the other seven at Toro Rosso. The following year, 2008, he started in the Energy B team and shone. Even with many retirements at the end of the year, he knew how to work to put the team back on track and make a magical second half of the year, winning the Italian GP, with pole position and everything.
Red Bull was the obvious destination, and so it was for 2009. That was when everything changed for the team, which made an impressive leap in the grid and left the giants Ferrari and McLaren behind. The title didn't come because of the Brawn GP phenomenon, but Red Bull was well positioned. Vettel was vice world champion and emerged favorite for 2010.
There, yes, began one of the most dominant moments of any driver in the history of F1. In the year he would be only 24 years old, Vettel knew how to fight. With five wins in the year, including in three of the last four races, he narrowly beat Fernando Alonso to win the Vettel world title. He dominated in 2011 to be bi and had to deal with Alonso again for the tri in 2012.
In 2013 there was no contest: Vettel was four-time champion and still closed the season with nine straight wins - ten in the last 11, 11 in 13 and 15 wins in all.With the arrival of the 'Hybrid Era' in 2014, the order of forces changed and Mercedes' rise was meteoric, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dominating. Vettel seemed despondent during the year, and in October he set his sights on Ferrari the following year. For the next six years he defended the red color.
As early as 2015, when Ferrari was going through a rebuild after the departures of Luca di Montezemolo, Stefano Domenicali, and Alonso, Vettel won three times. Starting in 2017, things changed. Ferrari jumped up and put itself in a position to challenge Mercedes, with Vettel starting the 2017 and 2018 championships very strongly and leading for several times especially in the early half of those years. Both championships have major throws that demarcate Sebastian's exit from contention: the accident with Max Verstappen at the start of the 2017 Singapore GP and the run off the track at the 2018 German GP. Hamilton got the better of him in both cases.
After the mistake in Germany, that just after a win in England, where Hamilton always reigned, Vettel did not recover. The end of that season was bad, while Charles Leclerc arrived the following year and quickly became the darling of the team, which again had changed boss and president, with the departure of Maurizio Arrivabene and the departure and death of Sergio Marchionne. Even without the dreamed of title, Vettel won 14 races for Ferrari, which puts the German only behind Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda.
The exit was announced for the end of 2020, but still before the championship started. Aston Martin, which was returning to F1 as a brand after almost 60 years, took advantage and signed Vettel. In the first year, the four-time champion was second in the Azerbaijan GP and achieved the same result in Hungary, but on Monday he was disqualified for a technical infraction related to the amount of fuel delivered at inspection. A team problem. The expectation was to have a stronger team in 2022, but it didn't happen. Aston Martin has regressed and thinks about how to get out of the last positions this year and in the next ones. Something difficult even with the bold plans, including a new factory and wind tunnel, more employees, and the tradition of the brand.
A career nothing less than glorious, in an undeniable way. Averse to social networks, in recent years, Vettel increased the way he dealt with social issues, always at the circuits, taking advantage of the F1 platform. During this period, he defended climate issues and the bees, a species that is under global threat of extinction - something that would change the ecosystem of the planet, since the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community and anti-war issues after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as well as anti-racism. Now he will have more time to address other issues.