Sebastian Vettel announced his resignation

Sebastian Vettel has decided to leave the Aston Martin team and Formula 1 after the end of the 2022 season…

Sebastian Vettel: “Over the past 15 years I have been fortunate enough to work with many fantastic people in Formula 1 – too many to mention and thank everyone.

I have been driving the Aston Martin team for the past two years and although our results have not been as good as we had hoped, everything is now being created so that the team can compete at the highest level in the future.

I really enjoyed working with these wonderful people. Everyone – Lawrence, Lance, Martin, Mike, senior managers, engineers, mechanics and the rest of the team – are ambitious, capable, experienced, dedicated and friendly people. I wish them all the best. I hope that my work in the past and this year will be useful in developing a team that can win in the future. In the last ten races, as before, I will work with full force in favor of the team.

The decision to retire was not an easy one, I thought about it a lot. At the end of the year I’ll take a little more time to think about what I’m going to do next, but it’s very clear to me that I want to spend more time with my family. But today is not about goodbye. Rather, it’s about thanking everyone – and not least the fans, without whose passionate support Formula 1 would not exist.”

Lawrence Walk, Chairman of the Board of Directors: “I would like to thank Sebastian from the bottom of my heart for the great work he has done for our team over the past year and a half. We made it clear to him that we wanted him to stay with us next year, but in the end he did what he thought was right for himself and his family. We respect his decision.

Sebastian has driven some fantastic races for us and behind the scenes his experience and knowledge has been a great help to our engineers. He is one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time and it was an honor for us to work with him. He will continue to drive for us until the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2022, where he will hold his 300th Grand Prix. We will give him a great goodbye.”

Mike Krak, Team Principal: “Sebastian is an excellent driver – fast, smart, able to think strategically. We will miss these qualities. We learned a lot from him, this knowledge will benefit our team long after his departure.

The Aston Martin team is a big project with unlimited potential and the work Sebastian did last year and continues to do this year is critical. When we become fully competitive, as we will be, Sebastian will be one of the architects of this success. We are grateful to him for that.”