{"id":86228,"date":"2025-08-22T00:33:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T00:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/86228\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T00:33:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T00:33:08","slug":"sebastian-vettel-was-prevented-from-signing-for-3-1bn-valued-f1-team-after-being-dropped-by-ferrari","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/86228\/","title":{"rendered":"Sebastian Vettel was ‘prevented’ from signing for \u00a33.1bn-valued F1 team after being dropped by Ferrari"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sebastian Vettel\u2019s Formula 1 career spanned 16 seasons and five constructors, leading to the German becoming one of the sport\u2019s greatest drivers.<\/p>\n

Although Sebastian Vettel<\/a> is best known for the four drivers\u2019 championships<\/a> he won with Red Bull, it should be remembered that he came extremely close to adding to that tally during his time with Ferrari<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His battles with Lewis Hamilton<\/a> during his Mercedes<\/a> days were intense, and while they have a good relationship now, it was previously very frosty.<\/p>\n

Vettel had some exceptional teammates during his time in Formula 1, including Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen.<\/p>\n

Webber and Vettel had some feisty exchanges<\/a> at Red Bull<\/a>, but one teammate who finally got the better of the 38-year-old was Charles Leclerc<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grand Prix starts299Pole positions57Podiums122Wins53Fastest laps38Points3098Championships4 (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)Sebastian Vettel\u2019s Formula 1 career<\/p>\n

Leclerc arrived at Ferrari after a year-long loan spell at Sauber in 2019, and immediately finished above Vettel in the championship.<\/p>\n

After one more season together, Ferrari decided to bring in Carlos Sainz to replace Vettel, leaving him looking for a new opportunity.<\/p>\n

Journalist Bianca Garloff believes that before he settled for a seat at Aston Martin<\/a>, it was the \u00a33.1bn-valued Mercedes<\/a> team that he wanted to join, before Toto Wolff<\/a> blocked his signing.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Sebastian Vettel admits he\u2019s actually in favour of controversial F1 rule change<\/a><\/p>\n

\"MercedesPhoto credit should read ANDREJ ISAKOVIC\/AFP via Getty ImagesToto Wolff \u2018prevented\u2019 Mercedes from signing Sebastian Vettel after Ferrari exit<\/p>\n

Garloff was asked on F1 Insider\u2019s YouTube channel if there was any possibility of Wolff asking Vettel to return to Formula 1, and she replied: \u201cWolff won\u2019t ask Vettel, we don\u2019t need to think about it any further!<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no need to think about it anymore. His time in Formula 1 is over; no one would want him as a driver in Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cToto Wolff had the chance [to sign him] when Sebastian was dropped by Ferrari, his contract wasn\u2019t renewed, let\u2019s put it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cSebastian wanted to go to Mercedes, Toto prevented it. That\u2019s why Seb had to go to Aston Martin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision ultimately lay with Toto Wolff, and the decision was not positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff<\/a><\/p>\n

How Toto Wolff reacted to Sebastian Vettel to Mercedes links in 2024<\/p>\n

When Hamilton announced that he would be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari last season, Vettel was one of the names linked with his seat.<\/p>\n

Vettel had been retired from Formula 1 for over a year and hadn\u2019t taken part in a professional race since the 2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

CIRCUITWINSPODIUMSPOINTSSingapore58199Monaco27179Suzuka48176Hungaroring27170Montreal26166Sebastian Vettel\u2019s most successful Formula 1 circuits<\/p>\n

Asked about the prospect of the four-time world champion returning with the Silver Arrows, via Formula 1\u2019s official website<\/a>, Wolff said: \u201cSeb, I think, is flirting with the idea of going racing again.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see he\u2019s done a sports car test with Porsche and has been enjoying it, and I think maybe there is the idea that came back of maybe coming back to Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cSebastian has been a good friend since a long time, I respect him as a driver a lot. Therefore, it\u2019s never a name you can discount and say \u2018no it\u2019s not for us\u2019, it needs to be part of any discussions going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Vettel\u2019s experience was overlooked for Andrea Kimi Antonelli\u2019s potential, although it\u2019s been a bumpy start to life in Formula 1 for the teenager.<\/p>\n

However, there are plenty of upsides to giving the Italian his chance, whereas with Vettel, his final seasons in F1 demonstrated that it would be very unlikely that he would rediscover his championship-winning form.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sebastian Vettel\u2019s Formula 1 career spanned 16 seasons and five constructors, leading to the German becoming one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,826,813,1627,816,945,851,85,4703],"class_list":{"0":"post-86228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-ferrari","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula-1-driver-market","14":"tag-formula1","15":"tag-mercedes","16":"tag-sebastian-vettel","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-toto-wolff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}