F1, Sebastian Vettel explains why he quits: ‘I like winning’

The four-time world champion reveals what could have changed his decision

Sebastian Vettel, in an interview for Aston Martin’s official channels, revealed what could have made him change his decision about retiring at the end of the season.

“I don’t know if I would have retired if I had been competitive for the last three years. Who knows, maybe I would have made the same decision, or maybe not. It’s impossible to say, but it crossed my mind. Coming tenth doesn’t excite me because I know what it feels like to come first. If you have never finished first, the first time you finish tenth you feel a real thrill. But I’m happy that I don’t feel excitement for finishing in the points-zone. You have to be true to yourself: I like to win. It sounds selfish and self-centered, but winning is what drives you forward in what you do,” explained the four-time world champion.

“You get used to victories. But when you don’t win anymore, you think about how great it would be to win again. When you come back and win, it’s an important moment that means more than the other successes, just because of the hard times you had to go through,” Vettel continued.

It was Sebastian Vettel who was the first driver to win a world championship with Red Bull. The German put everyone in line for four years in a row, from 2010 to 2013. The Austrian stable returned to success in 2021 thanks to Dutchman Max Verstappen, with the son of art repeating the following year. If there was a battle to the last in 2021, that was not the case in 2022.