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SPA, BELGIUM – Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Ferrari, Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto and Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Ferrari stand for a minutes silence in tribute to the late Formula 2 driver Anthoine Hubert on the Formula 3 grid before the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
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SPA, BELGIUM – Sebastian Vettel of Germany and Ferrari, Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto and Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Ferrari stand for a minutes silence in tribute to the late Formula 2 driver Anthoine Hubert on the Formula 3 grid before the F1 Grand Prix of Belgium at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in Spa, Belgium. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
When Sebastian Vettel joined Ferrari back in 2015, it felt like it was the start of a fairytale. For Vettel, it would be his lifelong ambition to emulate his childhood hero Michael Schumacher. For Ferrari, well, they’d hoped they would embark on another era of Scarlett dominance.
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Truth be told, it lived up to its expectations once in a while. The sum total of their journey together was nothing short of heartache for them and F1 fans in general. Now, after the conclusion of Vettel’s 16-year-long illustrious stint in F1, his Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto has summed up the 4x Champion’s time with the team from Maranello.
Binotto began, “When he joined Ferrari, his ambition and objective was to win the title with Ferrari and it was our dream and objective as well. So it was a failure for him but it was a failure altogether as a team.”
“I think when your final objective is to do that and when you do not achieve it, it is a failure.”
For Vettel, winning with Ferrari might’ve been his biggest goal in life. But as we all know, that didn’t really pan out the way he would have expected. Failure with Aston Martin to that end is probably another big reason why he decided to hang up his racing helmet.
Former teammate believes Sebastian Vettel will never return to Formula 1
A comeback with Ferrari seems impossible for the 35-year-old German. That being said, given that Fernando Alonso returned to the sport after a short hiatus, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why Vettel cannot do the same. But Charles Leclerc thinks otherwise.
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Motor racing. Formula One F1. Hungarian Grand Prix. Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary. July 28, 2022. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ahead of the Grand Prix. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo.
After the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sergio Perez in the cooldown room put a smile on the faces of F1 fans who were just coming to terms with the fact that Sebastian Vettel had indeed finished his last ever F1 Grand Prix. But Leclerc was quick to bring us back to reality.
Perez said, “It didn’t feel like a goodbye to Seb, I have a feeling he’ll come back.”
Leclerc retorted, “I don’t think he will come back.”
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Written by
Edited by
Ranvijay Singh