Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel made his first social media presence since the F1 Australian GP as he answers questions from the fans online.
With COVID-19 pandemic creating havoc all around the world and F1 on hold at least until mid-June, it is testing times for everyone involved. For race car drivers, it is an unique situation, where they are getting time to spend at home rather than in hotels.
It is the same with Vettel, who flew back home from Australia, even before the grand prix was officially cancelled, as Ferrari made it clear that they won’t compete irrespective of the decision made by F1. He had Kimi Raikkonen with him on the flight back home.
As Vettel is not on social media, no one had heard about him for weeks until Ferrari announced a Q&A session with the four-time F1 world champion, where fans were asked to send in their queries before the deadline for the German to answer.
The answers of the selected questions were released earlier in the day where Vettel recorded a video from his home, thereby making his first appearance on social media since the Thursday of the Australian GP, amid the globally hit pandemic.
He selected some general questions to answer, which could be found here:
We previously embedded the full video but looks like Ferrari has blocked it: https://www.facebook.com/ScuderiaFerrari/videos/1903980479900495/
Here’s the link to the same: https://www.facebook.com/ScuderiaFerrari/videos/1903980479900495/?epa=SEARCH_BOX
While everyone waits for the action to begin, the F1 teams are doing their best to keep the timeline alive with various social media efforts. The Virtual Grand Prix Series is another way which is keeping many hooked onto internet while under lock-down.
Before this video went alive, Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto made an apperance on Sky Sports Italia too, where he discussed about the proposed 2020 schedule which includes shortened weekends and the season ending in January 2021.
The Italian also said that he is in constant touch with both Vettel and Charles Leclerc, along with the other members of Ferrari as Italy has been hit hard by the pandemic. The Monegasque, meanwhile, has shared videos of ongoing training at his home.
Here’s Mattia Binotto on various on-going discussions
Here’s Ferrari updating on its work resumption
Here’s Romain Grosjean on speaking with Sebastian Vettel
Here’s Mattia Binotto on multiple topics
Here’s news on Ferrari helping Italian officials
Here’s Pirelli notifying on 13-inch and 18-inch tyres
