SEB’S IN THE PINK
For Vettel, the path had seemed obvious. Despite the tension that had brewed through 2019 amid Charles Leclerc’s emergence, and the five-year deal his young team-mate was rewarded with for his fine start to life at Maranello, Seb still felt a new contract offer for himself seemed likely.
But Ferrari had other ideas. Talks were never opened with Vettel, the Scuderia’s focus instead shifting to signing Carlos Sainz from McLaren, thus making Leclerc the new team leader and the man on whom it wanted to stake its future.
It was never a situation Vettel thought he would be in, nor one he has ever suffered previously. He had never needed to go out in search of an F1 seat before, always being coveted. Now he was weighing up not only his options to stay on the grid for 2021, but whether he wanted to remain in Formula 1 at all.
The soon-to-be-rebranded Racing Point team ultimately became Vettel’s destination for 2021, the deal being announced in September
WHEN SEBASTIAN VETTEL RECEIVED THE UNEXPECTED PHONE CALL FROM MATTIA BINOTTO INFORMING HIM FERRARI WOULD NOT BE EXTENDING HIS CONTRACT BEYOND 2020, SEB FOUND HIMSELF AT AN UNEXPECTED CROSSROADS...
– cynics might suggest deliberately – on the eve of Ferrari’s big 1,000th race celebrations
