Informed by Scuderia Ferrari that they would not be renewing his contract, Sebastian Vettel admitted that he never tried to “convince” Mattia Binotto to change his mind.
Sebastian Vettel was told last year, even before the first race of the delayed season, that his services were not required for the 2021 season. Instead Ferrari, who had handed Charles Leclerc a new long-term contract, decided to sign Carlos Sainz as the Monégasque driver’s new team-mate. The decision came as a surprise to many, especially Seb, as team boss Mattia Binotto had been telling the driver, and the media, that the German was his number one pick.
But when it came down to it, Ferrari decided that a change was in order.
Sebastian Vettel says he never argued about it after being told of Ferrari’s decision: “I don’t need to (understand Ferrari’s decision), to be honest, and it doesn’t change anything,” the four-time World Champion said in an interview with Racer – “I don’t look at it that way. I don’t work that way. It’s fine for me and I completely accept it, and when Mattia told me on the phone, it was clear. It wasn’t like I was trying to fight back or convince him otherwise – not at all. I think very much that if one door shuts another one will open, and obviously it took a bit of time and it raised a lot of questions about which door I want to open. It’s not that I had all of the teams of choice, but just in terms of what I want to do – more for the future, if I want to stay in Formula 1 or not. But obviously I’ve made my decision and opened the door.”- Seb concluded.
Five months later Sebastian Vettel announced that he had signed with Aston Martin, taking Sergio Perez’s race seat. He did, however, give some consideration to quitting the sport altogether, conceding that the pandemic had him looking at the bigger picture.
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