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Motorsport Week
Home Single Seater Formula 1

Vettel came ‘close’ to retiring before Aston Martin deal

by Phillip Horton
5 years ago
A A
36
Vettel came ‘close’ to retiring before Aston Martin deal

Sebastian Vettel (GER) Ferrari in the FIA Press Conference. Tuscan Grand Prix, Thursday 10th September 2020. Mugello Italy. FIA Pool Image for Editorial Use Only

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Sebastian Vettel has revealed he came “close” to retiring from Formula 1 before committing to Aston Martin Racing on a multi-year deal.

Vettel was informed by Ferrari in May that he was not part of the team’s plans and the subject of his future has been a discussion point throughout the delayed 2020 campaign.

On Thursday it was confirmed that Vettel will remain in Formula 1 next season after agreeing to join Racing Point, which will rebrand as Aston Martin in 2021.

When asked how close he came to walking away from Formula 1, Vettel said: “Close. I don’t know if there is a measure of how close you can get.

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“It was close in terms of having a lot of thoughts, and deciding what’s ultimately I have to put myself first in that regard and what’s best for me.

“What I’ve decided now I believe is the best for me and looking forward to proving that.

“It wasn’t an easy call because the last weeks and months have been quite intense, a different and new situation to be in.

“As I have put out from day 1 obviously I felt like I wanted to remain in Formula 1 if there was something that really attracts me.”

Vettel added that it was “clear” for him that Racing Point was the right destination once he realised he wanted to remain in Formula 1.

“[The important aspect for] me has been answering to myself the question of what I want to do and want to get out of myself in a potential future in Formula 1,” he said.

“Once those things were clear I think the performance side [of the team] was ticked fairly quickly and a lot of thinking on my side in terms of what I want to get at again, once those things were clear it was clear what to do.”

Tags: Aston MartinF1MugelloTuscanGPVettel
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Comments 36

  1. TL B says:
    5 years ago

    Getting sacked for cause by the worst managed team on the grid AND not being wanted by anyone with more brains than money should make anyone retire! Only someone with much more money than brains will buy damaged goods like $V. Dum Daddy $-TROLL just won the suckers auction!

    $V has an early start on destroying Tracing Point from within. Forced Dum Daddy $-TROLL to buy out Checo how many years early? Buyout + Losing Checo’s big sponsor $$ is already a huge loss that $V can’t offset. Add in the increase in salary $V got over Checo & that is how much LESS R&D Tracing Point will have. A few dozen million in all that.

    Add in the new no cloning rules & Tracing Point will slide down towards hA$$ & Alfa. HAHAHAHA!

    A fool and his $$ are soon separated, Dum Daddy $-TROLL.

    LOL, FOOL $-TROLL!

    Reply
    • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
      5 years ago

      I think it’s Ormar that caused this. Anyone who understands F1 knows that the driver is worth 10% and the rest is the car. Vettel never earned his 4 WDCs, he lucked them by being in the Red Bull.

      Reply
      • TL B says:
        5 years ago

        Open this when you’ve had an especially trying day:

        https://youtu.be/w48gVdXV6rE?t=1110

        Reminds me a bit of Ferrari since the Brawn Empire.

        Ref: splash damage is when a shell explodes close to several objects and spreads damage like a water balloon.

        Reply
      • TL B says:
        5 years ago

        Just in case the F1i link didn’t play:
        https://www.youtube.com/c/Motorsportmagazine/videos

        But wait, there’s more:
        https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-tzHYMhxkEoYTwSzfYH9Yw/videos

        Reply
        • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
          5 years ago

          Got it. I was on Motorsport magazine YouTube channel. That’s a totally different channel.

          Reply
          • TL B says:
            5 years ago

            I added the The Royal Automobile Club link as well. Same creators looks like.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            Just finished the Barnard interview. Skipped a lot of it. It reminds me how boring engineers are, brother included. Monotone. Thinking. Everything defined and in categories. Reasoned to the point of zzzzzzz. Can’t look at anything more about these burning nobs. I was watching the practice sessions on fast forward in the background. Equally as boring. So I’ve just had an hour of double boring. I hope FP3 sees some crashes and cars not rebuilt in time for quantifying. Anything to make the race more interesting. I’ll chat tomorrow, I’ve got to do something to wake up, after all that boring engineer talking…

          • TL B says:
            5 years ago

            Gordon Murray’s takes on E-power: https://youtu.be/hySbZVhroWk?t=2498

            The E-power bit ~ 5 min. Sux that politicians don’t take more stock in experts than hipster declarations.

            I think ICE power still has a place in low cost series like IndyCar, but not as costs rise exponentially for only marginal gains, like F1. Hope I’m wrong.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            Best time in F1 was the Ford DFV engine era. Basically a standard engine. Like the one tire rule. Make the big items standard and let the driver contribute more to the result. Engine and tires are two areas to easily standardise. Let Ferrari supply all the engines, then we can go back to monster V12s.

          • TL B says:
            5 years ago

            Good vid that shows Ferrari should have won the ’18 title & when it all started to fall apart.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6278BtOC_pI

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            The guy is funny but it’s not new information for me and I got bored. Also it’s one of those videos that wants to appeal to everyone and I find them too general and not technical enough. But it was funny to see that Vettel’s crash in Germany was the last time they were ahead in either championship.

          • TL B says:
            5 years ago

            I loved the points vs time & fuel flow meter cheat graphics. The RBR rat job to the FIA was clever as well. The idea that settlement was worded to make it sound like Ferrari would help find other F1 / diesel cheaters was funny. Immunity for testimony?

            If you want to split atoms, Scarbs or Gary Anderson are ways to go. There hasn’t been $h1t since pre-season on tech bits.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            I met Gary once. He’s very tall. And a really nice guy.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            2022 is a good time to be a works engine team not a customer, as the designs are changing. Red Bull might be a Renault customer again, not the Honda works team. That’s crap timing

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            Search this video from 3 weeks ago.

            “F1 Driver Robert Kubica in BMW M4 on the Nürburgring! | Fast&Fun Misha Charoudin”

            Kubica turned up at the Nordschleife and asked a random guy to take his car out for some laps. The first part is funny, as Kubica asked someone else first and they wanted him to take a driving instructor in the car! I guess they didn’t recognize Robert.

          • TL B says:
            5 years ago

            Liked RK’s sense of humour. Cringed when I saw how little mobility / strength his right hand has. Not a fan of $uper rich Douch wannabe racers & YT-ers. Great manners from everyone on track – pulling right when faster cars came up.

            Couple of FYI’s:

            SimDane has a double $V diss track up:
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG7tReQx6SA

            Check out these clips: Post Code Brown comments are priceless
            https://youtu.be/pdPk6mA_gZs?t=95
            https://youtu.be/x2GORR1aQDs?t=70
            Last, but not least: ‘Murica’s financial plan details:
            https://youtu.be/5FLUkaySEY8?t=65

            Interesting nugget on how Hammy uses tax cheats to fund his party lifestyle:
            https://youtu.be/j__q1PevAmk?t=927

            Forgot that MSW allows links. What a concept!

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            Links!!! Ahhhhh. The sky is falling down. Help. Well that’s a lot of videos to watch in a fogged out FP1. About Robert’s hand, I’m glad he still has it. Robert almost died at the crash. He was put into a coma to protect him. When he woke up his first words were about his co-driver. He did a lot of damage to his body not just his hand. What Robert can do with one hand is better than what most drivers can do with three hands.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            Watched the SimDane. I like his slower songs to his faster ones. But my favourite is still “Some Driver That You Used to Know” due to the Sbinotto section.

            I was lucky that when the Subaru WRX was first released a friend bought one and I was lucky to drive it. While the on track performance is great, when we went off road was amazing. On a sandy road we had almost tarmac like acceleration due to the drive setup with three viscose limited slip discs.

            I studied finance and I’m aware of the ways to reduce tax. The video was quite simplistic, so I got bored and didn’t watch all of it. I know far more complex versions of each of the ideas that they discussed. I don’t use them because I prefer a simple life and most involved some level of lying. For most people the easiest and simplest option is just pick a place to live with the lowest tax. That’s what Lewis Hamilton does. But so are people living in Florida who used to live in NYC. There are many levels of tax based domicile choices.

            My favourite is the European days mismatch. If you live more than six months in one place you usually have to pay tax there. But some countries don’t count the day you arrive or leave in those days. This means that if you arrive in a country on a Monday and leave on a Friday, those days don’t count. You are only in the country you work in from Tuesday to Thursday or 3 days out of 7. That’s way less than 6 months of the year. So you pay no tax. But the country you live in also only counts the whole days, so for them you are there only on Saturday and Sunday, which makes you a tourist. So neither country taxes you. I knew a guy who did that for 5 years, working in London and living in Copenhagen.

            You can search “Flag Theory” or “The Nomad Capitalist” or “The Perpetual Traveller.” I was a Perpetual Traveller. for 16 years. I didn’t spend more than 6 months in one location and therefore didn’t have to pay tax. But that was due to my work and not actually a strategy for tax. I was not able to pay tax as none of the countries that I lived in would register me for tax, even when I tried to do that. Anything outside of the basic way of living is “too hard” and ignored. The person who arrives for 3 months isn’t easy to account for. So they refuse to do it. Now I’m more stable and a regular tax payer.

          • TL B says:
            5 years ago

            Without Ferrari, it’s just the Merc & Mad Max show. Here is a decent graphic with relative pace in ’20. https://youtu.be/0ltTDiSTagY?t=61

            Too bad Ferrari did an own goal this year. Otherwise, no one would care if RBR & TR sold their kit.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            PS thanks for linking the video with the time set in the video so that I don’t have to scan through the video for the chart. You have done that before with other videos and I have appreciated it, but I forgot to say something about it at the time.

          • TL B says:
            5 years ago

            I realized that Merc shut down the ’20 dev money train, enabling RBR catch up. after I sent the link. Quite a sad state that Merc is so much better than everyone else. The only way you catch up in one year is that Merc is getting much further away the next two years. Dayum.

            Between the ground effects and budget cap, something better create some bloody action in this predictable parade. Alonso can’t do it all by himself.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            It would be funny if the 2022 regulations somehow cause the cars to be more equal, and Alonso does his magic and wins the WDC.

          • TL B says:
            5 years ago

            Here is a “good” vid link: https://youtu.be/JSkrR6ANP34?t=382

            Thought the solution was quite original.

            FYI. Goodwood is in progress right now.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            I don’t know anything about Goodwood.

          • TL B says:
            5 years ago

            If you like vintage racing – where they really hang it out, check out the YT channel:
            Goodwood Road & Racing. Day 3, race re-starts at ~ 6 hr 54 min into the vid.

            Cobra’s, Jag’s, TVR’s, GS Vettes & wheel to wheel action. Much higher slip angles than F1 cars in the weak a$$ tyre era. Better than TROLL bashing!

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            I don’t but thanks. Too slow, roll too much, and I cry when they crash. A friend once let me drive his Ferrari Dino, a car that I’ve always admired. It was a horrible experience. Slow, handled like crap, terrible seating position, horrible steering and brakes. That changed me. I never wanted a classic or vintage car after that. I had a 1969 Alfa Romeo gt junior that I restored from a wreck, and I liked driving it. But it was always trouble. I sold it after 3 years, not long after driving the Dino, and never looked back. Now I’m an SUV guy. I’m not into driving fast any more. And for racing, strictly F1. Nothing less.

          • TL B says:
            5 years ago

            Most pre-1990 Ferrari’s were overhyped #h1t boxes. 288 GTO & the F40 were notable exceptions. Most Lambo’s were the same. Glad Ferrari turned it around with the F355, 360, 458, 458 Speciale, 488 series.

            I don’t want vintage now because of safety. No ABS, no airbags, no TC, soft suspension, thin tyres.

            I admire the driver skill with huge angles of slip. I could be on track holiday for the rest of my life and not be with 2 seconds of the best. A lot like $V I’d think.

            Crashes are tear worthy. Guts and glory. Sniffle.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            I drove a 355 once. The car belonged to a friend of a friend. I asked him if we could put the car in “sports mode” or whatever it was called. He said it was. It felt under powered and loose. I guess they are made for middle aged stockbrokers and not racers. The guy was a middle aged stockbroker. It was yet another Ferrari disappointment. I’ve driven a few Lotus, the WRX, a few other fast cars. Like F1 drivers say, nothing compares to racing a go-kart, which I did for a while. Everything else is slow, and a lot more expensive.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            One of the big driving forces in F1 today is the budget cap. Top teams are throwing all their “unlimited” money at 2022, although they are not supposed to. Mercedes switched off their car development this year a while ago. They will have done some development for 2021 but most will be on 2022. That lets Red Bull catch up, as they have to develop in 2020 and 2021, since they are so far behind. This will likely give Mercedes an advantage in 2022. But next year could be interesting.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            In my other post I said “random guy” but that’s wrong. It was a car rental guy at the Nordschleife. But still worth watching.

          • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
            5 years ago

            Burning nobs = boring knobs. Damn autocorrect.

    • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
      5 years ago

      I can’t seem to post images here.

      Reply
      • TL B says:
        5 years ago

        Can’t wait to see it.

        If it doesn’t post, you could send the exact phrase that hits it on Google.

        Reply
        • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
          5 years ago

          Can’t find it on Google.

          Reply
      • TL B says:
        5 years ago

        Can you post a link?

        Here is a link image. Let me know if you can see it.

        https://assets.newatlas.com/dims4/default/f2a1f1c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1600×793+0+0/resize/2880×1428!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnewatlas-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Farchive%2Fmost-advanced-acadmeic-statistical-analysis-formula-one-racing-31.jpg

        Reply
        • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo says:
          5 years ago

          I saw it.

          Reply

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