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Sebastian Vettel feels that his yearning to win a title with Ferrari meant that he got lost in the efforts somewhere and hence was unable to put together the kind of performances he would have liked. The German was a four-time world champion when he decided to pursue his dream of emulating his idol Michael Schumacher.
At the end of the 2014 F1 season, Vettel decided to switch teams and move to Ferrari from Red Bull. The stint at the Italian team did not prove fruitful as despite winning a few races, Vettel was unable to fully challenge for the title before the relationship ran its course in 2020.
Speaking about his stint at Ferrari during the Beyond the Grid podcast, Sebastian Vettel felt that he almost got lost in his pursuit of winning with the team and hence could not put his best foot forward. He said:
"My target was not to just win a race, I've done that. My target was to win the championship and ideally win the championship the way I wanted to win the championship, which is winning many, many races. Maybe I lost myself a little bit in that process, and maybe my races here and there weren't the finest."
Sebastian Vettel added:
"But still, I will say the lessons that I had – and I would say some of the races were pretty good – were more important. Then coming into the year 2020, obviously, with a pandemic, and it was making room for that voice inside me to grow as well. Interesting, but I would just call it life, and I think we all go through that one way or another. I'm no exception, I'm nothing special."
Sebastian Vettel reflects on the failed Ferrari campaigns
Sebastian Vettel was able to put up a challenge in the first halves of the 2017 and 2018 seasons. By the second halves, however, that challenge dissipated as Mercedes surged forward with the development of the car while Ferrari went backward. Reflecting on those failed campaigns, Vettel said:
"In '17, we had a great car, and we fell short. [In] '18, we had a great car, [but] we fell short again, at the end. Just both years, we didn't keep the development pace up, and we just fell back, so we got beaten. '19 was a bit of an odd year, because the start of the season wasn't, let's say – to me, at least – giving me [or] us the momentum to feel, 'Alright, here we go again'. So then you start to think [about] what might have actually been the problem the last couple of years, and maybe there were too many thoughts."
Sebastian Vettel was succeeded by Charles Leclerc as Ferrari's lead driver but even for him, the fortunes have remained the same as his predecessors. Ferrari is in dire need of changes that could help the team progress and challenge at the front.
