Toto Wolff vetoed a Sebastian Vettel-Lewis Hamilton lineup at Mercedes, claims F1 insider

F1 journalist Bianca Garloff has claimed that Mercedes boss Toto Wolff "prevented" a move to bring Sebastian Vettel to the Silver Arrows upon his Ferrari exit after the 2020 season. This blocked the route for a potential partnership between the German driver and Lewis Hamilton in 2021.

Sebastian Vettel's journey with Ferrari came to an end in 2020 after six years of unsuccessful attempts at winning a world championship. The 4x world champion then decided to join the newly branded Aston Martin team for the 2021 season, which turned out to be his final F1 team.

But F1 journalist Bianca Garloff has claimed that the veteran's career could have gone in another direction post-2020. Garloff has mentioned that Vettel wanted to join Mercedes upon his Ferrari exit, but this move was blocked by Toto Wolff.

When asked if Wolff could potentially bring Vettel back to F1 on F1-Insider's YouTube channel, Garloff revealed that this would never be the case, given that the Austrian has already once stopped Vettel from signing for Mercedes.

"Toto Wolff had the chance [to sign him] when Sebastian was dropped by Ferrari, his contract wasn’t renewed, let’s put it that way. Sebastian wanted to go to Mercedes, Toto prevented it. That’s why Seb had to go to Aston Martin," said Garloff.

"The decision ultimately lay with Toto Wolff, and the decision was not positive," she added.

If Sebastian Vettel had signed for Mercedes in 2021, it would have likely meant a driver pairing of him and Lewis Hamilton. The pair, who are two of the modern F1 era's most successful drivers, had a fierce rivalry throughout their careers, but became friends towards the end of Vettel's career.

Many fans would have liked to have seen the two line up against each other on the same team, even though Vettel had already exited the peak of his career by then.

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Sebastian Vettel advocates for the return of V10 engines to F1

Sebastian Vettel during the 2019 USA Grand Prix - Source: Getty

Sebastian Vettel has claimed that F1 would be better off returning to the V10 engines, which would add to the spectacle of the sport. The former Red Bull driver also added that the current generation does not understand the importance of the V10, which meant a lot to him growing up.

Speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, Vettel argued that F1 has stuck to its current overtly expensive power units to simply gain the "hybrid sticker". He argued that the spectacle of F1 would largely be enhanced by the return of the screaming V10s.

"I was still able to experience what a V10 feels and sounds like. And that is part of the show and the Formula 1 experience. In the past you didn’t just go to the race track to see who would win; you also wanted to breathe in all the fascination around it," he said.

"I do think there’s a generation growing up for whom the V10 sound is no longer as important as it is for us, but who could still be excited by it," he added.

Vettel also claimed that he does not believe that the Formula One engines need to be road-relevant, which is one of the biggest criticisms against the V10 engines.