When Sebastian Vettel announced his decision to retire from F1 at the end of last season, the sport bid farewell to one of its finest ambassadors.
While many believe that it was bad timing on the part of Vettel to call it quits, Aston Martin has now confessed that Vettel’s consistent intel throughout the 2022 season played a big part in the results that the team is starting to display this term.
Aston Martin’s surge in results that has seen Fernando Alonso claim a podium finish on numerous occasions in the early part of this season is not merely through chance, but rather through Vettel’s high level of understanding of the car that paved the way for its success this season.
Could Vettel not have stayed at the team for another season if this was the case?
It may be argued that Vettel called time on his career far too early and he could have reaped the rewards that the team is enjoying this year.
However, the German himself was not aware just how soon the team would benefit from his feedback and by the time he started notching up some good results in Austin and Suzuka, he had already made his announcement of quitting the sport.
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack is now left wondering if the team could have possibly held on to the German for another season, especially if he himself knew just how competitive the car would be this year.
When Vettel did call time, the team was in an awful condition, having mustered just 20 points from 13 races.
However, Aston Martin made prudent recruitments in Dan Fallows and Eric Blandin mid-season and the team’s fortunes began to change.
Krack said that everyone could see that Vettel had returned to form by the end of the season, but he had already made up his mind by then.
“By then, his decision was already made. If he had had the car this year, he could have postponed his retirement,” Krack said.
As far as Krack is concerned, he feels Vettel must have lost all his motivation to race based on the results in the first half of the season.
This naturally meant that he had made up his mind by then and pretty much nothing could stop or alter his decision.
The team roped in Fernando Alonso as Vettel’s replacement and the Spaniard is perhaps the happiest person on the grid with how his career has suddenly been resurrected.
With six podium finishes in the first nine races of the season, Alonso has certainly exceeded expectations.
The team looks a completely different outfit this season as a result and although it has been overtaken by Mercedes in the constructors’ championship, there is little doubt that they are moving in the right direction.
Do you think Vettel was too hasty in his decision to retire? Let us know in the comments.
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