When Mercedes dominated Formula 1 at will with the beginning of the hybrid era from 2014, many fans would have liked to see Sebastian Vettel in the Silver Arrow. But the German “dream marriage” never came about. Vettel himself has now spoken about the reasons in the “Beyond the Grid” podcast.
“I have with Niki [Lauda] talked about coming. That must have been halfway through the Ferrari era,” recalls Vettel, who switched to Ferrari in 2015. “Of course it would have been a huge thing, because Lewis [Hamilton] was her number 1,” said Vettel.
“I’m not sure if they would have liked to have both of us in the team,” he grins, but also emphasizes that he himself was “not particularly interested at the time” in changing teams anyway. Because he was “closely tied to Ferrari” at the time.
Vettel really wanted to win with Ferrari
His “big dream” was always the title with the Scuderia. “You talk to each other, but it wasn’t really serious,” he says, referring to the talks with Mercedes. “It would have been a great challenge that I would have liked,” he admits.
“But it wasn’t meant to be. At the time, my goal was to win with Ferrari. I didn’t want to switch to Mercedes. Apart from winning, which I love, winning with Ferrari was always my big goal,” said Vettel, who could never fulfill his dream of the title in red.
“It would have been fun for me to drive with Lewis. We get along really well,” emphasizes Vettel, who nevertheless does not regret never having driven for Mercedes. Incidentally, he identifies the race in Baku 2017 as a decisive point in his relationship with Hamilton.
Baku “turning point” in relationship with Hamilton
“I was pretty angry,” Vettel recalls his ramming against Hamilton at the time. “[Es war] one of those moments that went against me and made me very angry. The emotional side took over,” he reveals.
“But in hindsight, that was a turning point,” emphasizes Vettel, because the situation brought Hamilton and him closer together, he explains, admitting: “I realized it was the wrong shape. It wasn’t right, it was not the behavior of a sportsman.”
“I admitted that afterwards when we talked. And since then we’ve grown closer together,” said Vettel, who stayed with Ferrari until the end of 2020. When he had to leave the Scuderia, there was no vacancy for him in the Mercedes works team.
Instead, he then drove for two more years for the Aston Martin customer team before ending his career after the 2022 season.