F1, Sebastian Vettel reveals of negotiations with Mercedes and Niki Lauda

Former Red Bull driver reveals of negotiations with Mercedes

Four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel recently retired from racing after 16 seasons in the premier class. In his career, the German drove the single-seaters of Toro Rosso, Sauber, Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin.

Vettel, during the ‘Beyond the Grid’ podcast, recounted that he had been close to a move to Mercedes and had discussed it with Niki Lauda: “Maybe there was an opportunity to move to Mercedes, and I had talked about it with Niki Lauda but to be honest, I was in the middle of my experience with Ferrari. Obviously it would have been a big deal, also because Lewis was their number one and I don’t know if they would have wanted to have both of us on the team. But also I was not very interested at that time, because I was very busy with Ferrari, and it was my dream to make that project work. So there was talk, but it was nothing serious. I think it would have been a great challenge to be Lewis’ teammate, and I think I would have liked that, but it was not meant to be. At that time, as I said, my goal was to win with Ferrari. I didn’t want to change teams and win with Mercedes.”