F1 Today – Vettel retires & Hungarian Prixview – 28/07/2022
Vettel announces retirement at end of the season
Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel has announced he will retire from F1 at the end of the season The German who joined Aston Martin last year, scored four consecutive titles in the early 2010s before joining Ferrari in 2015 where he endured difficult championships challenges before being dropped by the Italian manufacture ahead of the delayed start to the 2020 season.
Vettel is currently third on the list of all-time Grand Prix winners with fifty-three victories, trailing only Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher. The German is one of the most successful drivers in the sport’s history and described the decision as “difficult.”
On the teams Instagram, the four-time champion said “The decision to retire has been a difficult one for me to take, and I have spent a lot of time thinking about it. it 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.”
Adding “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 10 races.”
Vettel took his first win in an uncompetitive Toro Rosso since rebranded as Alpha Tauri, at a tricky wet race at Monza in 2008 which earned him a seat with Red Bull for 2009. The move to Red Bull co-inside with huge changes to the technical regulations which the team would dominate between 2010-13, as well as finishing second behind Jenson Button in 2009 and Lewis Hamilton in 2017 and 2018.
In 2013, he won 13 races in the season, equalling the record set by Schumacher in 2004, including the last nine in a row – the longest run of consecutive victories in a single season, and the equal longest run ever.
His time at Ferrari blighted by reliability and operational problems on Ferrari’s, then at the 2018 German Grand Prix things started unravelling when he crashed while leading. Over the next two and a half years a series off mistakes cost him his Ferrari drive, the frequency of which was highly unusual for a driver of his calibre and which has never been fully explained.
Ultimately, the team lost faith in Vettel. In 2019, they signed Charles Leclerc as a benchmark for him in only the Monegasque’s second season in the sport.
Throughout the season the team has made it clear they had wanted to keep Vettel, but the German made the decision he wanted to step away from the sport. In recent years he has become an outspoken campaigner on social and environmental issues. During lockdown in 2020 he spent the time studying organic farming and often avoids the limelight on his farm in Thurgovia, Switzerland.
He married his childhood friend Hanna Prater, who he has three children with, in early 2019. Vettel is known for his love of British comedy and has in the past competitive, private and impatient.
In recent years he has formed an alliance with former rival Hamilton, in speaking out about human and social rights issues, as well as environmental issues. He threatened also to boycott this years now cancelled Russian Grand Prix, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Vettel has always eschewed social media, but he launched an Instagram account on Thursday just before his retirement announcement, with his biography there describing him as “public figure”
Vettel explains decision to retire
Sebastian Vettel says his decision to retire from F1 was “in my head for so long” and he feels relieved to have finally made it public. In his first press conference since the announcement earlier on Thursday, he revealed he only told the team on Wednesday.
The four-time champion noted that thinking about his future has been a distraction in recent weeks, and that having made the call to stop he can approach the remaining races of the season in a more relaxed mood.
Asked in the press conference ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, if having made the call to stop he might be lacking motivation for the remaining races of the 2022 season, Vettel suggested that in contrast he is now more relaxed. He said “I don’t see that I will have a problem to motivate myself for the next 10 races. I feel a little bit the opposite.”
“I feel that obviously this decision has been in my head for so long now, and has taken so much energy to be honest, and maybe even at times distracted me a little bit, that I’m quite relieved and looking forward to the next races. So it’s maybe more the opposite.”
Vettel explained that while he still loves motor racing, “voices” in the form of his family and interests outside the sport played a part in the decision. While the final decision was made yesterday, he says there was a lot of though gone into it and believes it was the right call.
He added, “I think it’s the right time for me to do other things. Obviously, I know how much dedication goes into this. And if you do this, I’m convinced you have to do it the right way. I don’t get much pleasure and motivation from being here and just being part of it.”
Vettel stressed that while Aston Martin does not have a competitive car at the moment, he values the team itself highly, and believes that it can make progress. Adding “I think in terms of greatness, this team doesn’t fall short of any of them, compared to any of the ones before, but obviously, our package wasn’t as strong as we would have loved it to be.”
In a rare comments about his private life he says he says being away from home, not seeing his children growing up and having other interests he couldn’t ignore those voices. He also says he spoke a lot to his wife Hanna, who was ready to support whatever choice he made.
he said, “Of course, I spent a lot of time talking to my wife and she’s probably been the first supporter in terms of carrying on, and said that ultimately, it’s my decision. I think I’m incredibly lucky that I found something that means so much to me in my life, gave me so much joy, a platform to make friends and meet all sorts of people, travel the world, see things, open my horizons.”
Hamilton praises Vettel’s support
Lewis Hamilton has praised Sebastian Vettel for supporting his anti-racism campaigning after the four-time world champion confirmed he will retire from Formula One at the end of the season. Vettel will retire as only the fifth driver to make his three-hundredth start in Abu Dhabi.
Hamilton and Vettel both made their F1 debuts in 2007 and would go on to share ten of the next fourteen World Championships. In recent years despite their rivalry on track, both drivers have formed an unspoken alliance when speaking on safety, human rights and environmental issues.
Hamilton said, “There’s no lack of bravery in Sebastian. He has been one of the very, very few drivers in racing history that has stood for much more than himself.”
“He’s used his voice in things that I’ve fought for and stood by me, he’s taken the knee, he’s gone on his own journey and stood on the grid and fought for things that he believed in, and for the greater good. I think he’s just a really beautiful human being and I’m really grateful to have been here in a time that he was racing.”
The seven-time champion says he was sad to see the news, but knows what he does next is a is going to be even better.”
Drivers reach
Other drivers have been reaching to Sebastian Vettel’s retirement on social media.
Lewis Hamilton added, “Seb, it’s been an honour to call you a competitor and an ever greater honour to call you my friend. Leaving this sport better than you found it is always the goal. I have no doubt that whatever comes next for you will be exciting, meaningful, and rewarding. Love you, man.”
Charles Leclerc, Vettel’s teammate in 2019-20, said “Definitely a legend of this sport. For me, I’ve spent two years in the same team as Sebastian and I’ve grown a lot as a driver and as a person. I went through this path together with him, so he has seen me change as a person, which I think there’s a special connection as a result of.”
Daniel Ricciardo, Vettel’s teammate in 2014, said, “Obviously personally, I spent some time alongside him which was a privilege. I learned a lot in 2014 alongside him and even before that, being a reserve driver and just being around the team and watching how he would work. He had a lot of good traits and a way to get people behind him and rally. He’s just a very driven individual and we’ll certainly miss him.”
Mick Schumacher, mentored by Vettel, “He’ll leave a big hole behind, that’s for sure. It’s obviously something that probably hits me a bit more than some others, just because I lose a friend in that sense. Obviously, I will see him beside the track, but on track and just having somebody that you can talk to, it’s definitely a loss.”
Max Verstappen, “He has achieved so much in this sport that it’s fully understandable for him to retire. To see him go is something that you can see coming. Everyone is getting older and, of course, it’s not nice for Seb’s fans but these things happen and now he can enjoy time with his family.”
Russell says first half of season has gone well
George Russell’s first half a season with Mercedes despite the difficulties the team has faced this season has gone pretty well. At the halfway stage the of the season he leads seven-time champion teammate Lewis Hamilton by sixteen points, however, he is clear he wants more.
In an interview with BBC News he pondered “Going up against the greatest driver of all time, where do you set your expectations? It’s by no means been a bad start to the season, but I would still like to raise my game a little bit. If I’m performing against the very best in sport – and I want to be the very best – I need to be at the top of my game every single week.”
Russell is clearer he needs to keep improving and look to Hamilton to see if he’s consistently doing something better. This is all naturally part of a drivers development. The raw statistics look good for Russell, but this has been an unusual year for Mercedes, who have found themselves with an unexpectedly uncompetitive car that had a fundamental aerodynamic instability for at least the first third of the season.
As the team starts to turn the corner, and Hamilton starts finding his form Russell knows the greatest driver statically in history that presents a different challenge. Saying “I think every individual, you know if you’re performing at the top of your game or if you feel like you’ve got more to improve.”
“It’s been a good start to the season, but there are definitely areas that I need to improve, and I definitely can improve, and I have been improving throughout the season. So I guess that’s exciting for the future. But racing drivers aren’t patient. I want to be right on top of my game today.”
From the very start in his uncompetitive Williams there were signs most notably second at last years Belgian Grand Prix, achieved by a remarkable wet qualifying. Also in Sakhir in 2020, when he replaced Hamilton, when he was denied what would have been a fairy-tale debut victory not once but twice, through two separate pieces of bad luck.
Russell looks back at his time at Williams and says the three years he spent there were “too long” as he felt ready to drive the Mercedes after “one or even two years”. After the 2020 season Mercedes had tried to get the Englishman out of his contract but decided there was no point paying it when he could have the Briton this season anyway.
Russell laughs, and says: “Well, yeah.” But he goes on to say how grateful he is to Williams for giving him the chance in F1. The team were struggling financially at the time, he says, and they chose him over Russian Sergey Sirotkin who, as Russell puts it, had “millions of dollars of sponsorship”.
2022 hasn’t turned out to be what Russell expected, Mercedes had produced their worst car for ten years. He has focused with Hamilton on turning around the performance of the team, the light appearing to be at the end of the tunnel. Both agreed that Mercedes can win races in 2022.
Saying “t there will definitely be times we can fight for a victory. We’ve had probably two occasions where we could have fought for victory – in Silverstone and potentially in Barcelona – if things panned out slightly differently. And we are only making the car faster.
McLaren still feeling “aftershock” from Bahrain nightmare
McLaren says it is still feeling the “aftershock” of its difficult start to the season in Bahrain, which locked it into its current development cycle. The fortnight which covered the final test and opening race of the season in Sakhir in March.
The extent of its troubles there prompted McLaren to put in place a recovery plan to get it back towards the front of the pack – which appears to have worked with the outfit in a fight with Alpine for fourth place in the constructors’ championship.
But one of the legacies of that plan was that McLaren would opt for a series of spaced-out major updates, rather than consistently bringing new parts to every race. It has also left the team behind its midfield rivals, who make bigger steps when their upgrades arrive.
Technical director James Key explained that things were set in stone in the wake of what happened at the very first race. ” explained Key “To be brutally honest, when you get a shocker like Bahrain, you have to make a plan “When you make a plan, you put everything in a direction, as it’s very difficult to rein in a plan.
“I emphasise this massively at every team I’ve been to: have a good race to begin with, and you open up freedom. Have a shocker, and you think: ‘Jesus is that where we are?’, which is what we thought maybe was the case.I think if you can trickle stuff, it’s definitely easier on the workforce and more efficient. But this is a bit of an aftershock from the first race.
“Equally, it’s giving everyone structure to the development plan, and clear deadlines, which I think the team is appreciating as well. I’d love to be in a more kind of trickling bits approach, but that’s where we are at the moment.”
Key suggested that the fluctuation in the midfield form could be explained by competitors being out of sync with updates. That is why he was not getting too carried away with Lando Norris having managed to split the Mercedes in qualifying for last weekend’s French Grand Prix. He admitted poor races have not helped as well, hinting that the see-saw effect would continue in the midfield.
Although Norris could not match his strong qualifying form in the Paul Ricard race, Key reckons the team just needs more time to better understand its package. While the team are still analysing the data they have made a step forwards, and McLaren’s challenge now is to maximise the package.
Norris adding “Now we’ve got to use it and work with it and see if we can exploit a bit more from it, and learn at different circuits. One of the issues we’ve had this year is that it has been a bit of an up and down depending on the nature of the track.”
Ricciardo remains defiant about future
Daniel Ricciardo remains defiant about his future amid his difficult season, insisting he is still capable of winning if given the opportunity. Over the past eighteen months, he has struggled against his younger teammate Lando Norris, with McLaren’s CEO Zak Brown says he has fallen short of expectations so far.
That lack of form has also seen the Australian’s future questioned, with Ricciardo recently issuing a statement to confirm, despite McLaren’s links to other drivers, that he will be seeing out his contract until 2023. He told Sky Sports he has the confidence to bounce back if given a competitive car by the team who are currently fourth in the standings.
He told Sky Sports, “Give me a winning car, and I’ll win. I don’t feel I’ve ever left a win on the table. That’s the challenge that lies ahead of us, with myself and the team at McLaren It’s like, let’s figure this out.
“I want to take on this challenge with you. Let’s figure it out because you give me this, and I’ll give you this in return. That’s the confidence I have in myself and that’s ultimately why I still wake up wanting to do it.”
Ricciardo is an eight-time race winner in F1, claiming seven victories for Red Bull and one for McLaren last year at Monza, the team’s first since 2012, has been the only highlight of the past eighteen months. A fine overtaker, Ricciardo has also proved to be an opportunist.
Last year’s troubles were put down to getting to grips with a new car, but this season in a new machine Norris, has been even more dominant against his older teammate. McLaren has not helped with the speculation, by signed up another highly-rated IndyCar driver, with Alex Palou joining Colton Herta and Pato O’Ward at the Arrow McLaren team.
Brown, McLaren’s CEO, had also hinted at “options” to get out of Ricciardo’s three-year contract early. But Ricciardo insists he’s staying while McLaren’s F1 team boss Andreas Seidl is also happy to retain him. Seidl added “He’s committed, and we are committed from our side.”
“We just need to keep working hard together in order to find these last percentages that we’ve seen from time to time. At the moment, that’s what we spend all our energy on.”
Magnussen is “anxious” about impact of first upgrades
Kevin Magnussen says he is “a little anxious” to see what impact the first major Haas update of the season has on its performance when it arrives for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Unlike many of its rivals, the American team has until this point opted not to bring one big upgrade, instead focusing on small refinements and unlocking the potential of the existing package. In Spielberg, the Dane said a he was surprised the team was still so competitive and regularly scoring points despite the lack of updates.
But for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, Magnussen will get a raft of new parts on his car, while teammate Mick Schumacher is set to receive the update after the summer break.
Magnussen said last week in France, “We’ve seen this year that we’ve been finding performance more than we thought we would with this, but we basically haven’t really upgraded since winter testing. It’s been a little bit surprising to see how much more performance we’ve been extracting.”
“So when you put on a new package, it’s a little bit… I’m a little anxious to see if it’s just going to be whatever improvement on top of what we have now, or if it’s a step back and you work towards something with more potential. I don’t know. It’s going to be interesting to see.”
Magnussen raced with Haas in 2019 when the team’s first major update package of the year proved so unpredictable it ended up going back to its race one specification midway through the season. Thanks to being higher in the championship ten points ahead of Schumacher he will get the only upgrade package the team has.
Magnussen said the new 2022 cars were “very different” to understand when it came to applying updates due to the immaturity of the regulations.
The weekend ahead
Budapest in my mind is normally an abnormal race where we get surprise winners and results. Although naturally, our focus will be on the battle between Ferrari and Red Bull, Charles Leclerc you need to say needs to bounce back in the title race after crashing last weekend in Le Castellet.
The Hungaroring is often described as Monaco without the barriers, however I think given what we have seen in recent years we could get more overtaking and with the regulation changes that may increase. We could get some good racing, but it is a circuit where setup can be difficult, conditions are stable.
Hungary has been a good circuit for Lewis Hamilton, while a win maybe on paper difficult for Mercedes, there is something about Budapest which makes him excel. We know however we know the circuit isn’t flat and that hasn’t been where Mercedes have struggled more. If George Russell takes his maiden win, he would be the sixth driver and third Englishman to do that in Hungary.
Strategy is traditionally more important being a circuit where overtaking is more difficult, and the hot conditions we normally see can make this a race of strategy. We know there have been epic battles and cars faster cars being held up by slower cars in the past and that will have to be factored into the various strategy’s this weekend.