“Thanks Lewis Hamilton to initiate”: GDPA chairman reveals Mercedes star pitched special dinner for Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel will ride an F1 car competitively for the last time until he decides to reverse his retirement in the future. But for now, the F1 world is preparing to cope with his soon absence on the grid.

Even the drivers have expressed their admiration for Vettel. Lewis Hamilton even thinks that this is not Vettel’s end in F1. He believes that the German race driver will soon return to F1 to race.

As Vettel enters into the last race of his career, the entire grid joined him for dinner ahead of the start of the Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi. The pictures soon went viral on social media, as drivers shared them on their profiles.

Also read: Lewis Hamilton feels Max Verstappen is more aggressive with him because of his success

Lewis Hamilton initiated dinner for Sebastian Vettel

Alex Wurz, the chairman of the Grand Prix drivers’ association, reveals that Hamilton initiated the dinner. He was also grateful to all 20 drivers on the grid for turning up.

Thanks @LewisHamilton to initiate, and thanks all GPDA members to turn up to show respect to one of the greatest, to one of our directors, and ultimately to our sport (which Sebastian Vettel loves so much). too bad it was a great evening as well ! #GPDA pic.twitter.com/E1oLSCTSxH

— alex wurz (@alex_wurz) November 17, 2022

Hamilton even posted a picture with Vettel on Instagram. He captioned it with some wholesome words, as the text said the duo came in F1 as drivers but continue to grow as men.

In the photos, all the drivers were seen with some notebooks. Fans presume that it was handwritten notes by Vettel as a departing gift to all of them.

Sharing memories and tributes

During the Abu Dhabi press conference, the entire day was about Vettel. The whole grid talked about their memories with the four-time world champion. Daniel Ricciardo revealed that Vettel supported him the most during his tough phase at McLaren.

Max Verstappen said that Vettel was waiting for him outside the motorhome when the Dutch driver had a 52g crash at Silverstone. Several drivers shared their anecdotes with him, disclosing Vettel’s kind heart.

His long-time rival from the last decade Fernando Alonso also shared a new helmet design ahead of the weekend. The Spaniard posted a German flag-designed helmet on his social media with Danke Seb inscribed.

Also read: 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix race winner George Russell compares his helmet size with Sebastian Vettel

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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