Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel was voted Formula 1’s Driver of the Day with the German quadruple world champion finishing tenth in his final F1 race at the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Vettel, who started ninth, had a great opening stint battling with the Alpine pair of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso. The Aston Martin outfit opted to run their German on a one-stop strategy which in retrospect was the incorrect decision.
After making his one and only stop Vettel was forced to battle back up the order from 19th. The former Red Bull and Ferrari driver turned back the clock, pulling off a series of great moves to get back into the top 10.
Unfortunately, Vettel’s tyres would begin to drop off, with his teammate Lance Stroll eventually passing him and dropping him out of the points.
However, a late hydraulic failure for Lewis Hamilton bumped Vettel back into the top 10, with the Aston Martin also setting his sights on the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo who was also struggling with tyre degradation.
Ricciardo though would hold on meaning Vettel ended his final race in F1 in tenth.
A phenomenal career
Vettel will undoubtedly go down as one of the sport’s greats. The German was untouchable between 2010 and 2013 utterly dominating the last years of F1’s V8 era with Red Bull.
Vettel would then move to Ferrari, mounting a serious challenge for the championship in 2017 and 2018. However, despite winning 14 races with F1’s most historic team, the German would fall short of his ultimate goal of winning a title with Ferrari and emulating his hero Michael Schumacher.
While Vettel finished on the podium once more with Aston Martin, he also began to focus on various other endeavors including his advocacy for the environment, which ultimately proved to be the catalyst in making his decision to retire.
Vettel ends his F1 career with four world championships, 53 wins, 122 podiums, and 57 pole positions.
I’m gonna miss Seb! Think he will come back in another capacity?