Sebastian Vettel announced at the end of last month that he would retire at the end of the season and, after scoring points at the Hungarian GP just after his announcement, this Sunday he completed a good race to finish in eighth position at the Belgian GP.
The German is contesting his last appointments in Formula 1, but he does not want this part of the championship to be a farewell, and remains as involved as ever. This was revealed by the director of Aston Martin, who praised his professionalism.
Asked if he has seen any change in Sebastian Vettel since the withdrawal announcement, Mike Krack replied: “Not at all. And I had a long chat with him on Thursday as well to talk a little bit about how he feels about it and everything. it’s”.
“He doesn’t want to hear the word ‘farewell’. I saw a banner that said ‘Thank you Sebastian’ and they asked me if he’s on a farewell tour now. And no, not at all. We don’t see it as a farewell. We’ll do a little farewell.” at the end of the season, but until then we will give it our all, because we still have a little distance to close with some of the teams that are ahead. And we can’t finish in the position we are in now.”
When asked if Vettel is still interested in next year’s car project, which will be driven by Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, Krack revealed another detail: “Yes, yes. And that’s where you can also see how professional he is and how committed which is still there. In fact, in the meeting this Sunday he told us something like ‘for next year’s car, please think about this’. He is fully involved.”
The director does not feel any sense of greater freedom or relief in the four-time champion: “No, I think that when piloting there is none of that… I think it is more when they go to the airport, they are sitting on the planes, where maybe they think more about family and stuff, but I think when he’s in the car he’s completely focused.”
Vettel’s future plans are not yet known, although everything indicates that, at least initially, he will want to be close to his family and away from the circuits. On the possibility of giving him an ambassadorial role, Krack commented: “It’s very interesting. We haven’t talked about it, to be honest, because the announcement came just before the holidays, and I think we have to give him time to think about it as well. You have to make plans.”
“It seems to me that probably before he does anything else, he’ll also want to have a little bit of time off. So we haven’t talked about that.”
In addition, Krack was grateful that Vettel did not delay his decision for 2023, which allowed the team a lot of room to find a replacement: “That is not his character, he is a professional. And he will give everything until the last moment. Also the first thing he said when revealed to us that he was leaving it is that he would give everything until the end. And we have seen it this Sunday”.
Finally, he clarified that they cannot start working with Alonso yet, since the Asturian driver belongs to Alpine until the end of the course. On whether Alonso is also involved in the development of the 2023 car, he said: “Well, until now we need to clarify what we can do and what we can’t do. He is an Alpine driver, and we are Aston Martin, and the contract starts early. next year. So until then nothing is possible.”
Video: the summary of the Belgian GP 2022 of F1
Do you want to read our news before anyone else and for free? Follow us here on our Telegram channel and you won’t miss a thing. All the information, at your fingertips!
