Sebastian Vettel doesn’t have a cut-off from F1 in his mind but for now he is not thinking too much on it and looking ahead to 2022 with Aston Martin.
For Vettel, he is entering his sixteenth consecutive season in F1. That race at Indianapolis for Sauber where he stood in for Robert Kubica as a fresh faced teenager followed by a period with Torro Rosso which led to his halcyon period at Red Bull and six seasons at Ferrari which were good in part but petered out disappointingly in 2020.
He will be 35-years old in July, amusingly, one could suggest that Vettel has been in Grand Prix Racing half his life. His second season at Aston Martin should once more be interesting for him amongst the changes of course but it’s following on from how successful he and the team were last year.
Podium for him in Baku followed by a podium in Hungary which ended in disqualification. A good season in some parts however. Burning question even though the lights have not gone out in Bahrain yet is where will he be in 2023 and beyond, be it Aston Martin or another team perhaps. Vettel, though, doesn’t have a cut off time in mind.
“I don’t know is the honest answer, I think this year is a new year in many ways and I think we will go step-by-step,” said Vettel to written media. “I have no cut-off in mind or a number in terms of where the team needs to be, I think we will see where we are then at some point, start looking a little bit more forward into the future. I think we focus more on the start of the season now and then we go from there.”
One could take from that statement a lot of pointers. Vettel has in the back of his mind a stage which they as a team and / or he as a driver reaches and then a partial review could be undertaken and then make a further decision about where the future lies.
One of the other focal issues is that he has no contract after this season. Now, a decision regarding that could be taken early by Aston Martin on their plans for next year too or there may be a “wait and see” scenario before a decision is reached.
Should the season begin well for both Aston Martin and Vettel, that may assist in the long term decision making process. “The thing is I’ve had a while now in the sport and good years and not so good years but mostly I would say good years and great years with a competitive car and competitive team,” he continued.
“No doubt I’m in a very competitive team, the team’s spirit is great and the goal is clear, we want to progress and win. Ultimately having had the past that I’ve had so far I’m only interested in winning and what will determine what the future brings,” summed up Vettel.
As per the top, last season was good for Aston Martin and Vettel, ups and downs with some good results thrown in. Their target is to be more competitive of course in their battle with AlphaTauri and Alpine. Should the team start winning and achieving greater things, the German could be here for a long time possibly.
Here’s Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll testing AMR22
Here’s the launch of AMR22
