Sebastian Vettel says he was not forced to leave Aston Martin before retiring from Formula One. He also claims he had a “brilliant time” at Ferrari, despite the fact that he did not win the world championship in six seasons.
In July, Sebastian Vettel declared he would leave Formula One at the end of 2022.
However, reports stated that his current team, Aston Martin, had fired him.
The four-time world champion, though, is adamant that it is his decision to leave Formula One.
Since 2007, the well-liked German driver has participated in Formula One races.
Encased in racing dungarees, Sebastian Vettel is a mystery. perhaps last week while sporting a T-shirt that said, “Climate Justice Now.” Not quite now, though, as the four-time world champion will be leaving Formula One at the end of the season at the age of 35.
As charming, clever, and likeable as he used to be, he has evolved into an eco-warrior in recent seasons, even though he is aware that this is a get-your-cake-and-eat-it scenario in the gas-guzzling game.
Unfortunately, he is no longer the performer he once was, and he is currently ranked 12th. He was so incredibly talented as a child that he was quickly promoted to Toro Rosso and then Red Bull. Between 2010 and 2013, he claimed all of his titles. Heavens, he asserted that nine racesvictories back to back — and we think Max Verstappen has made this season predictable. There were a few turning points in Vettel’s story. His sojourn at Ferrari yielded 14 wins but no titles after two close calls, so that was mission unaccomplished. If there was an emblem of failure it was him binning it in the wet while leading his home race at Hockenheim in 2018. He left Ferrari and joined Aston Martin, where his form has been sadly punctuated by errors. And in Hungary before the summer break, he announced he was leaving — not least to make time for wife Hanna and their three children. But there are rumours he was sacked. The bombastic Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll is not famed for his
One theory is that Vettel’s backing of ‘Just Stop Oil’ protesters at Silverstone after they ran on the track was the last straw.
So what’s the truth? Did he jump or was he pushed?
‘A lot of things led me to my decision. The environmental concerns are only one reason. Seeing my kids grow up is another.’
And as for his stance on the climate?
‘People say I am greenwashing,’ he says, acknowledging the rub in travelling to 22 races across the world. ‘I am and we are, but I try to do what I can. I am fortunate enough to have money to implement solar panels on my roof. I can afford an electric car. I choose to drive to every race in Europe rather than fly, apart from Silverstone and Hungary.
‘Coming to my views on the environment wasn’t a trauma, a sudden thing. It’s just that I have visited so many places around the world and seen changes.
‘Now we don’t have any snow. Forest fires are in Germany, France, London. There’s drought in the summer.
‘Having my own children is a factor in seeing things in the way I now do. Life isn’t only yours.’
I wonder whether in light of his views he might consider either quitting now or working for free rather than accept money from Saudi-owned Aramco, the third of the three biggest oil companies in the world that have paid him his fortune.
‘Um,’ he says. ‘We drivers are not running the sport.
‘No, I wasn’t sacked,’ says the German, sitting inside the team motorhome ahead of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
‘To give you the truth, if they paid us 10 per cent of what we are getting we’d all still be here because we love driving. Yes, we are burning fuel to race, otherwise we wouldn’t go anywhere. But it is not our job to sign up various sponsors along the way.
‘I have lots of ideas and when I step away from the sport we will see what I can do with my money, though it is a very private question. I’d like to implement change and help kids, perhaps set something up — I could put money into that.’
What about becoming a politician? ‘No, it’s a very difficult job.’
Vettel will be replaced next season by Spaniard Fernando Alonso — at 41, six years his senior and the man he replaced at Ferrari back in 2015.
Here in Monza, Vettel considers his six years in the red car, carrying Italy’s hopes on this shoulders.
‘I had a brilliant time,’ he says. ‘I got to know Italy from a different point of view.
‘But my big target was to win the championship and we failed. I scored too few points. I crashed when I shouldn’t have. We weren’t quick enough when we needed to be.
‘But I have no major regrets. The smash at Hockenheim is a small one. If I could go back, I’d have braked even earlier!
‘But that doesn’t matter so much as that I tried most of the time to treat people the way I wanted to be treated.’
