Sebastian Vettel's father says the four-time world champion got closer to his decision to retire from Formula One after the Austrian GP.
Sebastian Vettel's father says the four-time world champion got closer to his decision to retire from Formula 1 after the Austrian GP.
Up until that point, the German and Aston Martin were talking about a new contract for 2023, but Vettel announced his decision to leave F1 on the Thursday before the Hungarian GP.
"It's a shame, but I understand him," stated Norbert Vettel, Sebastian's father. "It was an incredible career for my son, but the low point was Austria. It was very painful for him to ride at the bottom of the pack, it accelerated those thoughts of his."
Indeed, Austria was a bad weekend for Vettel on the track and he was also fined 25,000 euros for abandoning the official drivers' meeting.
Norbert Vettel has vowed to watch his son race in F1 one more time before his farewell in Abu Dhabi.
"I definitely want to do that and I will probably choose Monza because that's where he got his first F1 win with Toro Rosso," he said. "That's where his great career as a four-time world champion started."