Four-time Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel is to leave Ferrari at the end of this season, the Italian team announced yesterday.
“This is a decision taken jointly by ourselves and Sebastian, one which both parties feel is for the best,” Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said in a statement. “It was not an easy decision to reach, given Sebastian’s worth as a driver and as a person.”
Vettel, who joined in 2015 with the dream of emulating boyhood hero Michael Schumacher in winning titles with the sport’s oldest and most glamorous team, is out of contract at the end of this year.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Where the 32-year-old German would go next, and indeed whether he would remain in a sport whose season has yet to start due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are the big questions.
“The team and I have realized that there is no longer a common desire to stay together beyond the end of this season,” Vettel said. “Financial matters have played no part in this joint decision. That’s not the way I think when it comes to making certain choices and it never will be.”
“What’s been happening in these past few months has led many of us to reflect on what are our real priorities in life,” he said.
Vettel said he would take time “to reflect on what really matters when it comes to my future.”
German media, who flagged up the departure on Monday night, reported that Vettel had rejected the terms being offered by Ferrari.
Italy’s Gazetta dello Sport has reported that Vettel, who won 14 races with the team and is their third-most successful driver, had been offered a one-year extension with a salary reduction.
The German, who won his titles with Red Bull, told reporters last month that he could sign a new deal before the start of a season delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ferrari had also said that the German was their first choice to partner Charles Leclerc.
There was no one reason that led to the split, “apart from the common and amicable belief that the time had come to go our separate ways in order to reach our respective objectives,” Binotto said.
Leclerc, who won two races last year and is 22, has a contract until 2024 and is seen as Ferrari’s future and likely first champion since Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.
The Monegasque outperformed Vettel last year in his first season at Ferrari, finishing ahead of him overall, and taking more points, pole positions, podiums and wins.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo, at Renault, and Spaniard Carlos Sainz, at McLaren, have been installed as the leading candidates to take one of the most coveted seats on the grid.
Six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has also been linked to Ferrari, but has repeatedly said that he intends to stay with Mercedes.
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