It has been three years since Sebastian Vettel retired from Formula 1, and it doesn’t look as though a return seems likely.
Unlike his hero, Michael Schumacher, it seems that he is content with life away from the pinnacle of motorsport. Every now and then, he comes back for a visit, though.
He didn’t get his fairytale ending with Ferrari, and sadly, the Aston Martin project couldn’t quite give him one more victory to celebrate.
But, looking back, Vettel achieved a lot throughout his career and is now in a position that some could only dream of.
Perhaps he returns to motorsport in a management or advisory role one day, but, for now, he’s content watching from the sidelines.
Rumours that he could make a Red Bull return to replace Helmut Marko swirled not long ago, but nothing happened. It seems like he really is done.
Sebastian Vettel concedes he lost his ‘ultimate’ edge before leaving Ferrari
Towards the end of his career, Vettel was a regular fixture in the midfield. His final season with Ferrari was arguably his worst across a 15-year span.
In 2017 and 2018, there was a lot of pressure on his shoulders to perform and carry the hopes of an entire country on his back.
He came close, but both times was let down by either poor development or reliability against a superior Mercedes outfit.
Looking back, Vettel thinks he began his decline before leaving Ferrari in 2020. It was a testing time for him, but he didn’t quite know it yet.
“Yeah, 2010, obviously, I won the championship,” he said on F1’s Beyond the Grid Podcast. “I was sort of at my peak, but then in ’11 I was much more ready to win the championship than I was in 2010, for example.
“Strong years [followed], winning the championship. 2015 was a very strong year, ’17, ’18. And then ’19 and in fairness, ’20. I was on my way down already, and I’m happy to say that now, because I didn’t have that really last ultimate push anymore. No, I didn’t [know it at the time]. I didn’t.”
Did Sebastian Vettel have more in the tank after retiring from Formula 1?
Although he may not have felt like it, Vettel’s final season in 2022 showed a lot about what he still had behind the wheel.
His development feedback was a big reason why they hit the ground running in 2023 and were contenders for victories.
Who knows what he might have achieved by hanging around for another year, but scoring points in six of his last 10 races suggests that he still had more to give.
He’s still only 38 years old now. He remains the same weight he was when competing, and theoretically could make a racing return if he wanted to, but for now, there’s a sense of finality about Vettel’s story.
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