The quadruple world champion, now 35, made his debut as a teenager in 2007.
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Sebastian Vettel believes his first year away from Formula One will be like rehab. The quadruple world champion, now 35, made his debut as a teenager in 2007. He admitted to Der Spiegel that his life’s purpose for the past 16 years has been F1. Vettel used the example of Stefan Raab, a well-known German television personality who abruptly resigned in 2015.
“Now I secretly expect myself to be able to cope without Formula 1,” he said. “As if I was doing rehab. He was so omnipresent in the German television landscape, announced that he was going to stop – and then was practically silent from one day to the next,” said the Aston Martin driver of Raab.
“You’d have to ask him whether he’s happy or not, but first of all I think it’s admirable. He showed that he didn’t become dependent on it, which is a particularly great danger in sport.”
After he made his debut with BMW-Sauber in a one-off race at the United States Grand Prix, finishing ninth, Sebastian Vettel has been a Formula One driver since 2007. Red Bull signed him to their Toro Rosso squad, and he returned to the grid later that season. He has become a comprehensive Formula 1 driver ever since, with spells at Red Bull, Ferrari, and currently Aston Martin. He is one of the most successful drivers in the sport, having won four Drivers’ Championships, 53 Grands Prix, and 57 pole positions.
“Yes, I have done motor racing for my whole life and it gives you security, in terms of the schedule being made by other people. I don’t know what life after Formula 1 looks like and I don’t think any sports person knows what the next life looks like. You can have certain things lined up but you don’t know and that is the truth,” the German had expressed earlier in the season.
