Sebastian Vettel will retire from the FIA Formula 1 World Championship at the end of the 2022 season, it was announced on Thursday.
The four-time World Champion will bring his storied career in Formula 1 to an end after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November, opening up a vacancy within the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team.
Vettel says his primary focus has turned away from racing and more towards his family life, and he will bid the sport that he made his debut in back in 2007 goodbye later this year.
He says he has met and worked alongside many fantastic people during his career – too many to name and thank in one go – but he hopes to finish his career on a high and help Aston Martin make another step forward before he departs.
“I have had the privilege of working with many fantastic people in Formula 1 over the past fifteen years – there are far too many to mention and thank,” said Vettel in a statement on Thursday.
“Over the past two years I have been an Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team driver – and, although our results have not been as good as we had hoped, it is very clear to me that everything is being put together that a team needs to race at the very highest level for years to come.
“I have really enjoyed working with such a great bunch of people. Everyone – Lawrence [Stroll], Lance [Stroll], Martin [Whitmarsh], Mike [Krack], the senior managers, the engineers, the mechanics and the rest of the team – is ambitious, capable, expert, committed and friendly, and I wish them all well.
“I hope that the work I did last year and am continuing to do this year will be helpful in the development of a team that will win in the future, and I will work as hard as I can between now and the end of the year with that goal in mind, giving as always my best in the last ten races.
“The decision to retire has been a difficult one for me to take, and I have spent a lot of time thinking about it; at the end of the year I want to take some more time to reflect on what I will focus on next; it is very clear to me that, being a father, I want to spend more time with my family.
“But today is not about saying goodbye. Rather, it is about saying thank you – to everyone – not least to the fans, without whose passionate support Formula 1 could not exist.”
If he starts the remaining ten races of the season, he would have competed in 299 Grand Prix (he failed to start the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix following an engine failure on the way to the grid to prevent the even 300), and to date, he has won fifty-three of them, taken fifty-seven pole positions and won four titles, putting him amongst the elite of those who have raced in the sport since its inception.
He made his debut for the BMW-Sauber F1 Team in the 2007 United States Grand Prix – scoring a point as he replaced the absent Robert Kubica – before moving to Scuderia Toro Rosso later that season, and he took his first win for the Italian team back in the Italian Grand Prix a year later.
It was his move to Red Bull Racing that saw him really step up to the plate, finishing second in the Drivers’ Championship in 2009 behind Jenson Button before taking four consecutive titles for the team between 2010 and 2013.
He then joined Scuderia Ferrari in 2015, finishing second in the standings in both 2017 and 2018, before joining Aston Martin ahead of the 2021 season, where he took them to the podium in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Vettel currently sits fourteenth in the Drivers’ Championship heading into this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix on fifteen points, with his best finish of what is now his final season in Formula 1 currently sixth, once again in Azerbaijan.
Sebastian Vettel will not race in Formula 1 beyond 2022 after announcing his retirement – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd