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- Sebastian Vettel, 35, is retiring after the current Formula 1 season.
- Vettel won four championships from 2010-2013 with Red Bull under the leadership of team owner and Red Bull c0-founder Dietrich Mateschitz.
- Mateschitz died last week at the age of 78.
Sebastian Vettel had to know the question was coming.
After three consecutive strong races, including a seventh-place finish where he led two laps last week at the Formula 1 US Grand Prix at Austin, the current Aston Martin F1 driver was asked if there was any chance he was re-thinking his decision to retire from sport at the end of the current campaign.
The ensuing grin spoke volumes.
“It’s funny you say that,” said Vettel, during media availability on Thursday in Mexico City ahead of this Sunday’s F1 Mexican Grand Prix. “I don’t know if it’s a thing in Formula 1 or a general thing in our lives nowadays that we have to answer that question. No, I thought about this decision long and hard and from a lot of angles.
“I don’t know if I find it’s sad that we tend to swing so much. I see the benefits of having emotions running high and low, rather than just being flat. But I think the judging in general is a bit too quick. We create a hype and too quick that we create—I don’t want to say disappointment because of my situation now the last races versus the mid part of the season. It’s more of a general thing.”
Dietrich Mateschitz, right, and Sebastian Vettel in 2012.
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In other words, are all too often a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately proposition.
“I obviously enjoyed the last two races, the last couple of races, more than I did maybe some in the mid part of the season, but they have no impact on the decision,” he said. “If anything it is a great reminder of why I love this sport so much, why I love racing so much.”
To say the four-time World Champion is ending his incredible career on a high note is not exactly true. After all, Vettel has been to the top of the mountain four times as champion from 2010 to 2013 with Red Bull. His 53 career F1 wins rank third behind only the great Lewis Hamilton (103) and Michael Schumacher (91).
But Vettel’s best days are clearly in the rear-view mirror. His most recent, and likely last, win in Formula 1 came at Singapore back in 2019. Last year, he saw a streak of 14 consecutive years with at least one podium finish come to an and. Vettel’s last two races—a sixth-place finish in Japan and the seventh-place finish at COTA—were the best of his final season so far.
He’s a modest 11th place in the season standings.
“I’ve had great races and I really enjoyed them,” Vettel said about his final year in the series. “But I also had races that I didn’t enjoy so much and I was wishing after five laps to see the checkered flag, and it didn’t come out. So you have to find the motivation to hang in there.”
The end of Vettel’s amazing career coincided sadly with the death of Red Bull co-founder and Red Bull Racing team’s billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz. Vettel raced with a heavy heart last week at Austin after hearing of the 78-year-old Red Bull patriarch’s passing one day earlier.
Vettel was one of several graduates and current drivers from the Red Bull stable who stood on the grid before Sunday’s race in tribute to a man who many their big break in Formula 1.
Several members, past and present, of the Red Bull Racing and Red Bull junior team pay tribute to Mateschitz before Sunday’s race at COTA.
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“I think it was six of us Sunday on the grid that shared, obviously, a story with Red Bull. I think the impact that Red Bull had on the grid in the last 15 years has been outstanding and probably unprecedented.”
That impact has included six F1 Constructors’ championships and six Drivers’ Championships since Vettel’s and Red Bull’s first title in 2010. Red Bull clinched its most recent title on the weekend of the team owner’s death.
“Dietrich, to me, we had a very good relationship,” Vettel said. “And what I really appreciate today is that it was always eye level, even though he was far more experienced and knowledgable than I was—especially early on. So it’s been a real shock last week to hear the news. And it’s a massive, massive losses.”
Vettel, too, will be a massive loss to the series when he walks away at season’s end. And he talks like a man with no intention of staying involved with the sport after his career is over. He’s proud to be a full-time husband and father of three.
It’s a good bet that Vettel will take a little bit of Dietrich Mateschitz with him into whatever the next chapter of his life brings.
“He helped kids, girls, boys, men, women along the way,” Vettel said. “He helped them to chase their dream. It is a very, very big loss to everybody who had the privilege to get to know him and be with him. He was extremely humble, kind, and just a good, big heart.”
