F1: Sebastian Vettel Had Retirement Thoughts In 2019 Itself

As Sebastian Vettel approaches the twilight of his F1 career with his last two races on the horizon he has revealed that he had thoughts about retirement in the 2019 season when Kimi Raikkonen left the Ferrari team and was replaced by 21-year-old Charles Leclerc. The German who won 4 world titles on the trot between 2010 and 2013 had left the Red Bull F1 team to emulate the feat of Michael Schumacher, his hero who had won 5 world titles with the legendary Italian team. Vettel joined Ferrari in 2015 and competed with Lewis Hamilton in 2017 and 2018 for the world title but he fell short, and he revealed that he had doubts when that happened. 

[Leclerc was] unburdened by disappointments. Leclerc took the wheel and stepped on the gas. He was lugging less weight around. He drove the way I saw myself in my first Formula 1 years,” Vettel told a German publication. In 2019, Ferrari fell further behind Mercedes and Hamilton and Leclerc challenged the German and won more races than him in a season which culminated in Ferrari not renewing his contract in the 2020 season. Even in 2020, Leclerc outperformed Vettel who decided to announce his next team on the eve of Ferrari's 1,000th race in F1.

Vettel stated that his desire to retire accelerated when in his first two seasons at Aston Martin he found himself in a car that was not capable of challenging for wins regularly. He last won a race in 2019 – the Singapore GP and his best result for Aston Martin came in Baku in 2021. 

“The fact that I’m not currently in a race car with which I can show what I’m actually capable of has, however, also contributed to my retirement,” said the 53-race winner who is just behind Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton in the all-time list of drivers with the most wins. 

As Vettel nears the end of his career it seems like he is back to his stellar best and was voted the driver of the day in the US GP and has been easily outperforming Lance Stroll, his teammate.