Recently retired Sebastian Vettel has revealed he had talks with Niki Lauda about potentially joining the Mercedes team.
At the time, Vettel was two years into his contract with Ferrari after winning his four consecutive championships with Red Bull. Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg announced his retirement from the sport after winning the 2016 championship.
Vettel has now revealed that Rosberg’s retirement opened up discussions with Niki Lauda over potentially joining the Mercedes team. Hey explained:
“Maybe there was [a chance], I spoke with Niki. But to be honest, it was halfway through the Ferrari period.
“Obviously it would have been a big deal, because Lewis was their No1, and I’m not sure whether they would have liked to have us both in the team. But I also didn’t have great interest at that time, because I was so committed to Ferrari.
“That was my dream to make that thing work so you talk to each other but it wasn’t really serious. I think it would have been a great challenge and I think I would have enjoyed that but it just wasn’t meant to be .
“My focus was to win with Ferrari. I didn’t want to change team and win with Mercedes, but it just didn’t happen. I am cool with that.
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Vettel and Lewis Hamilton have been long time rivals and friends, the German driver went on to talk about their relationship. He added referring to their collision at the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix when Vettel went into the back of Hamilton and accused the British driver of brake testing him:
“I think I would have enjoyed racing with Lewis, we get along really well, and our moment was the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where we had maybe what you would call nowadays a ‘misunderstanding!’
“I was very upset. It was one of these moments where things didn’t go my way. And I was upset, and maybe the emotional side did take over too much.
“But I think actually, that moment was a key moment because it could have made us step away from each other more, or bring us together. And it brought us together.
The collision led to a very heated discussion between the two F1 legends, Vettel reflected on this saying it was probably the wrong way of dealing with the situation. Hey said:
“I reflect and I did think about what happened. And as much as I might have felt in the moment that it is not fair, [what I did is] not right.
“I wanted to show him, I wanted to tell him, but obviously we’re wearing helmets, and it’s hard to communicate. So that was a form of communication. But I also did see that it was the wrong form, and it was not the right way.
“It wasn’t sportsmanlike and not fair, which I admitted afterwards, and we talked to each other and I think since that moment, we got closer to each other.”
