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Thursday 12 November 2020
Sebastian Vettel has long marked this Formula 1 season, but of course he has yet to finish it. With Ferrari he now stops once again on a well-known track: in Turkey he won the last race to date. This time it’s just a stop on the way to Aston Martin.
At the end of his sobering Ferrari farewell tour, Sebastian Vettel had only the good thoughts of better times. He is looking forward to returning to Istanbul after a nine-year hiatus and has many “happy memories” of Turkey. In 2006, the 33-year-old made headlines for the first time when he was the youngest driver in history to set the fastest time in his first Formula 1 training session. Five years later, he won the race to his second world title with the Red Bull. It was the last event in 2011 before Turkey would no longer play a role in the calendar for a long time.
Only the Corona crisis and the emergency calendar of the racing series make the Grand Prix on the Bosphorus this Sunday (from 10 am / RTL and in the live ticker of ntv.de) again possible. And while Vettel took pole position and won almost a decade ago, the reality is now completely different. In the fourth heat since the end of the season it’s probably about getting some decent points again, while Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes can perfect his seventh world title and catch up with the record champion Michael Schumacher.
Those were the days …
(Photo: dpa)
Along with Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen, Vettel is one of only three active drivers who have won in Turkey. Knowledge of the route should bring a small advantage. Since completely different cars were being driven back then, it is not decisive. Especially since Vettel is not yet able to cope with the current Ferrari. As 14th in the World Cup, Hesse experienced a sixth and final season at the Scuderia with a measly 18 points. He is looking forward to moving to Aston Martin next year.
“I’m probably also in top form”
Despite all the current problems, his new employer is adamant in the capabilities of the 53-time Grand Prix winner. “I don’t think he has forgotten how to do it and how to move a Formula 1 car quickly,” said Vettel’s new team boss Otmar Szafnauer on the Australian podcast “In the Fast Lane” and added: “He is a four-time champion of the world with a great work ethic “. The German knows “what it takes to become a world champion team and a champion. We can’t wait to learn from him.”
Over the past few months, Vettel has often appeared disillusioned, as he could barely show his skills on the track and has no chance in dueling with his stable rival Charles Leclerc, who is ten years younger. But Vettel is definitely not an outdated model, his new boss said ahead of the trip to Istanbul. “Seb is now 33 years old and we must not forget that Formula 1 drivers have not yet reached their peak at this age”, Szafnauer emphasized. “They are probably also in top form or are still improving.”
An example of this is Hamilton, who at 35 drives so confidently in the superior Mercedes that no one can harm him. Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso will even return to Formula 1 at Renault in 2021 at the age of 39, and 41-year-old Räikkönnen will remain loyal to the premier class of motorsport.
You just have to get Vettel back “mentally in the right shape,” Szafnauer said. It is also about the fact that “he feels less pressure with us than with Ferrari,” said the Romanian. “99 percent is a matter of mind.” All of this is still in the future. In Istanbul, Vettel initially expects a route “that has a bit of everything” and is “nice to drive”. There will be no much-criticized team boss Mattia Binotto. The 51-year-old stays at the Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy, and directs the team’s history remotely for the first time this season. Field work should not be negatively affected by this, according to the traditional racing team.
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