Following his performances in Singapore, Japan and COTA, people found it hard to believe that Sebastian Vettel will be retiring from F1 at the end of the season. The last-lap overtake on Kevin Magnussen in Austin itself shows at the age of 35, Vettel’s still got it!
It won’t be easy to bid adieu to racing, believes Vettel. After all, he has been obsessed with the sport since his Karting days which he started at the tender age of 3.
Even his hero, Michael Schumacher could not stay away from the sport for long. Schumacher retired from F1 in 2006 but returned back with Mercedes for 3 seasons from 2010 to 2012.
Vettel feels he could still return to the sport after a couple of years away from the race track. The German claimed, “I’d like to rule it out. But I can’t. I have no idea how I’ll be ticking in a year or two.”
But he also hopes his prediction doesn’t come true. He added, “I’m in a sport where you could still return to after a two-year break. However, I wish that in two years I would still say, ‘No thanks, I don’t need racing anymore.'”
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Sebastian Vettel wants a post-retirement life devoid of racing
After 16 years in F1, Sebastian Vettel’s chapter in the sport will be coming to a close. With 53 race wins, 122 podiums and 4 F1 World Championship titles, the German will go down as one of the greatest racers in the history of F1.
Vettel raced for Red Bull with whom he’d claim 4 consecutive titles. And then make a dream move to Ferrari. His saga in F1 will come to a close after the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP.
Vettel stated in his retirement announcement video that he wished to spend more time with his family and do other activities. “Formula 1 was my life purpose for 16 years. Now I secretly expect myself to cope without F1 like I’m going into rehab.”
Vettel secretly wishes to not “want to see the races at all” after his retirement. Instead, he wants to do some “exciting things” and take a much-needed break from motorsports.
He added, “If you like something, you can also be attached to it. I want to go the other way, detach myself and find out there are other exciting things.”
Vettel was inspired by his role model Stefan Raab
Sebastian Vettel claims he is inspired to have a post-retirement life like his role model Stefan Raab. Raab was an extremely popular TV host and hosted the late-night comedy talk show ‘TV Total’.
He announced his retirement in 2015 and has been incognito ever since, making very few public appearances. Raab now focuses entirely on production work. And Seb finds this quality to detach from fame admirable.
Vettel said. “He was so omnipresent in the German television landscape. Then he announced that he was going to stop. And then it was practically silent from one day to the next.”
He added, “I find it admirable when someone detaches himself from public scrutiny to such an extent that you have the feeling: ‘He hasn’t become dependent on it.’ This danger is particularly great in sports.”
Seb claims he will remain close to the sport in the future as well. But he also rules out the possibility of being an F1 pundit in the future.
