At the Hungarian GP Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement from F1 at the end of the 2022 season and Aston Martin immediately moved to replace him with Fernando Alonso.
While he will not derive any personal benefit from it, Vettel is still keen to help the team progress after a difficult season with the AMR22.
When asked after the Belgian GP, if Vettel was still thinking about future improvements, Mike Krack, team principal of the English team, replied in the affirmative.
“And this is where you also see how professional he is and how busy he still is. Even in the debrief after the race he intervened saying: “For next year’s car, please think about it”. So he’s fully involved. “
Krack then underlined how Vettel showed no signs of relaxation either on the track or off, and cited as an example his race which ended in eighth place at Spa.
“It is not part of his character. He is a professional and will give everything until the last moment. The first thing he said when he told us about his retirement at the end of the season was that he would give everything until the end. And we saw that. racing today “.
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR22
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
When he publicly communicated his retirement, Vettel admitted he was distracted by thoughts of his future, but Krack denied any assumptions that the German now has a more relaxed approach.
“No, not at all. I had a long conversation with him on Thursday too, to talk a little bit about how he feels and all that, and he just doesn’t want to hear the word ‘goodbye’ mentioned.
“I saw a flag that said ‘Thank you, Sebastian’ and was asked if this season finale represents some sort of farewell tour. It is not at all. We will have a little celebration at the end of the season, but until then we will give the maximum to try to bridge the gap from some constructors ahead of us. We can’t really end up in the position we are in now “.
Krack then pointed out that there has been no discussion with Vettel regarding his future role as Aston Martin brand ambassador.
“To tell the truth, we haven’t even talked about it because the announcement came just before the summer break. I think we have to give him time to think about it, but before doing anything else I think he will want to have some free time” .
#Aston #Martin #Vettel #committed #improving #car