Fernando Alonso predicts Sebastian Vettel will return to F1 just like four-time World Champion foresaw

Midway into the 2022 season, Sebastian Vettel announced that he would retire from F1 at the end of the 2022 season. He joined Aston Martin at the start of the 2021 campaign, but it didn’t turn out to be a fruitful spell. He had just one podium finish and spent the majority of time in the lower midfield.

His spell at Aston Martin could be compared to that of Fernando Alonso’s time at McLaren. Alonso spent four seasons at McLaren between 2015 and 2018 which turned out to be a nightmare due to the car’s slow pace and reliability issues. At the end of 2018, he retired from the sport but returned just two years later with Alpine.

When Alonso announced that he would be retiring, Vettel predicted that he would definitely make a return. Now that Vettel has made a similar decision, it’s Alonso’s turn to share a few words on his former rival’s potential return.

“Seb, we’ll meet you here,” said Alonso. “I know that you’ll come back, as I did.”

Vettel has not ruled out a return to F1 himself, but he insists that coming back is something that isn’t on his mind anymore.

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Fernando Alonso turned out to be the replacement for Sebastian Vettel

It’s safe to say that Alonso’s 2022 season with Alpine was extremely turbulent. On the track, Alonso seemed to be on top of his game with his driving. However, reliability issues plagued plenty of his races whereas his teammate Esteban Ocon went on to score points.

In the end, Ocon finished ahead of Alonso in the Championship. On top of that, Alpine’s team principal Otmar Szafnauer had a strained relationship with the 2-time World Champion. All this added to Alonso leaving the Enstone-based outfit.

When Vettel announced that he would be leaving Aston Martin, it took the Silverstone squad just one day to confirm Alonso as his replacement. In fact, the Oviedo-born driver signed a multi-year contract with Aston Martin. He has reiterated his desire to not just be in F1 for the sake of it, but compete for race wins and World Titles.

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