Sebastian Vettel bows out of Formula One at the right time

In the end, there will be 299 Grand Prix in which Sebastian Vettel has sat in a Formula One racing car. He has won 53 of them, stood on the podium 122 times, started from pole position 57 times and won four world championship titles. He now heads into his final race in Abu Dhabi - where he became Formula One's youngest world champion in 2010 at the age of 23.

But Vettel is not wistful after 16 years in the premier class of motorsport: "It's not that I'm looking back a lot right now and feeling sad," he says. "I'm more looking forward to the time that comes afterwards."

Announcing his retirement at the end of last season was "a relief," he says. "I'm looking forward to being surprised, learning about myself, spending more time with my children and family and learning together with them," Vettel says ahead of his final Grand Prix. "It will be a different challenge and a different pace for me."

Meteoric rise at Red Bull

Speed has played a big role in his life from the start: Vettel proved to be a natural talent as a young child and was also lucky enough to be nurtured early on by a father who was a motorsport enthusiast. Vettel sat in a go-kart for the first time at the age of three. Soon after, he regularly competed in kart races, including abroad, where his family accompanied him in their motor home. In 2003, Vettel switched to Formula racing as a 15-year-old: Formula BMW, Formula 3, Formula Renault - then a test driver contract in Formula One with Team BMW Sauber in 2007. After a serious accident involving regular driver Robert Kubica, Vettel was allowed to make his Formula One debut in Indianapolis in June 2007 and immediately scored his first World Championship point.

Toro Rosso signed Vettel as a regular driver while the season was still in progress. He was now part of the Red Bull family and a meteoric rise began: In September 2008, he won his first race at Monza in what was actually an inferior car and was promoted to Toro Rosso's sister team Red Bull for the 2009 season. A year and a half later, he secured the world championship title for the first time in the fall of 2010, which he successfully defended three times. Vettel was only 26, but already a four-time world champion and well on his way to becoming one of Formula One's greats.

Inspired by Schumacher

However, after the fourth world championship title, there were no more and a steady decline began. Vettel's final years in Formula One were not exactly marked by success. For the 2015 season, he switched from Red Bull to Ferrari to follow in the footsteps of his role model and friend Michael Schumacher and fulfill his childhood dream of winning a world championship title for the Scuderia. "Michael was a huge inspiration. Not only when I saw him drive as a kid, but also when I met him in person and he became a friend," said Vettel. "It's definitely a special relationship I have with him."

In 2018, Vettel had a great chance to prevail in the world championship duel with Lewis Hamilton and win the longed-for title for Ferrari. But the dream came to an end in the gravel at Hockenheim. In the period that followed, the Scuderia became a crisis team, young Charles Leclerc was preferred to Vettel as number one, and finally, unnerved by the stalling tactics of the team management, he switched to Aston Martin. His legacy is 14 victories with Ferrari; only Schumacher and Niki Lauda managed more.

Decline at Aston Martin, new projects

But things didn't go according to plan for Vettel with his new team either: Instead of attacking the front places as planned, Vettel mostly just drove behind in the stylish car painted in British Racing Green. The German scored a total of just 79 championship points in his two years for Aston Martin. Last season he finished 12th in the championship (43 points), this year 11th (36).

However, Vettel, who used to be brash and ambitious, has "made his peace" with the fact that no more big results were possible at the end of his career. From the outside, "of course you think it's important to go out with a win or a title," Vettel said recently. "But I know that my last race probably won't be one of my highlights, and it doesn't bother me much."

In general, the 35-year-old has already developed interests in new tasks and projects away from racing in recent years. Vettel is an advocate for climate and nature protection and has repeatedly drawn attention to grievances with special helmet designs - for example, rising sea levels or the global decline in bee numbers. He has also been critical of sexism, racism and the restriction of human rights.

But because he was still part of a sport that uses high-performance internal combustion engines, flies around the world in a giant juggernaut and holds its races in countries that sometimes radically restrict human rights, critics accused him of hypocrisy.

In contrast, there was praise from Lewis Hamilton, who also uses his popularity to place political messages. "I don't think I've seen a driver in the history of the sport do what he and I have done, which is to use the platform, be open and take that risk," Hamilton said most recently. He sees Vettel as an ally. "It will be very sad to see him go."

Departing on a high

Vettel is looking forward to finally spending more time with his family at his retreat, a farm in Switzerland. Vettel has been married to his childhood sweetheart Hanna Prater since 2019. The two have two daughters and a son. For now, Vettel cannot imagine a return to racing. "I think the moment you step down, you step down. But you can't rule anything out." However, there is one thing he has categorically rejected: traveling around the world with the Formula One team as a TV pundit. It's not important enough for him.

It seems that Vettel is leaving at just the right moment: with his head held high, at a moment of his own choosing and at a time when he would have had offers and opportunities to continue driving. In sporting terms, there are only a few in Formula One who are even greater than he is.

This article was translated from German.