Vettel looks to end Ferrari stint on winning note

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, competing in his final race for Ferrari after six seasons this weekend ahead of Aston Martin switch for 2021, looks to end the season on a high.

Bidding farewell to Ferrari, the 33-year-old German driver admitted that his six-year stint in Italy is, ultimately, ending in tears of failure.

2020 has not been so kind on Vettel and his team. Ferrari are set to finish outside the top four in the constructors’ championship for the first time in almost four decades.

Vettel, who is experiencing the worst season of his Formula 1 career, sits 13th in the drivers’ standings.

He joined Ferrari in 2015, offered a searingly-honest and realistic appraisal of his time in Italy, despite winning 14 races, when he admitted his goal had been to claim a fifth title.

That total made him the third most successful driver in the team’s history behind seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, with 72 wins, and Niki Lauda on 15.

But emulating his idol Schumacher as a Ferrari title-winner had been his target.

“It doesn’t change anything, we’ve still failed,” he told reporters.

“We had the ambition to win the championship and we didn’t. We were up against a very strong team-driver combination, one of the strongest we’ve seen so far, but our goal was to be stronger than that and, in this regard, we failed.

“There’s a lot of reasons why, but in the big picture, I think it’s not unfair. It’s just the truth. Nothing wrong with saying it out loud.” Vettel will join Racing Point, re-branded as Aston Martin next year, and believes he has gained from his Ferrari experiences.

“Everything that happened has happened for a reason. The main thing on my side is to make sure that I learned from it and I think I have grown with it.

“Overall, I feel much more comfortable, or in a better place now, than all those years ago, but certainly it hasn’t always been easy and straightforward.”