The Aston Martin F1 team has announced that four-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel has decided to retire at the end of the 2022 season. Vettel’s brilliant career as a Grand Prix driver spanned over sixteen seasons during which the 35-year old has collected not less than 53 wins and four world titles.
Sebastian declared: “The decision to retire has been a difficult one for me to take, and I have spent a lot of time thinking about it. At the end of the year I want to take some more time to reflect on what I will focus next. It’s very clear to me that, being a father, I want to spend more time with my family.”
Team owner Lawrence Stroll made it clear he wanted Vettel to stay: “We made it clear to him that we wanted him to continue with us next year, but in the end he has done what he feels right for himself, and of course we respect that.”
Most probably, Sebastian, an Aston Martin brand ambassador, will stay in some kind of an advisory role to the team, and in this capacity, it’s easy to imagine he will recommend the hiring of Mick Schumacher as his replacement. Vettel is a huge admirer of Michael Schumacher since his karting days and has developed a strong friendship with his son Mick.
For Aston Martin, Mick Schumacher ticks all the boxes. His name is a huge marketing asset worldwide and the German market is very important to Aston Martin. Mick is not a rookie any more: he’s in his second year with Haas, and has shown good progress lately – he now has proved that he’s able to score points, given the right material.
These two years in the American outfit have not been easy for Schumacher: uncompetitive material at first, a series of crashes later, and less resources than the top teams, mean Mick feels like jumping ship. Will it be by Aston Martin is a tough question, because if he chooses to do so, he will have to leave the Ferrari family, where he feels he belongs. The coming days will certainly provide us some answers.
For the time being, let’s salute this immense champion Sebastian Vettel is, his enormous contribution to the sport, and the fine human being he is. The F1 will not be the same, without him.
