Sebastian Vettel retirement rumours fuelled after Australian GP – ‘never win again’

Sebastian Vettel sits in Aston Martin Formula One car

Sebastian Vettel “should retire” from F1 as he will “never win again”, according to ex F1 team boss Giancarlo Minardi. He added Vettel has a “lot of money” and “won titles” and so should give up on his current F1 drive.

Vettel has had a difficult start to the new season with a nightmare set of circumstances working against him. The four-time champion caught coronavirus and was forced to miss races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

He made his F1 return last week but suffered a series of issues which left him with very little track time. The 34-year-old’s car broke down in first practice on Friday which forced him to miss most of the day’s on-track running.

He then crashed in FP3 and was knocked out in Q1 before crashing again in the race.

Speaking to Corriere della Serra, Minardi said: “He was unlucky to have missed two Grands Prix because of Covid. But he should retire. He has a lot of money, he has won titles and he will never win again.”

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Sebastian Vettel retiremeny rumours have been fuelled after a disastrous weekend (Image: Getty)

Several pundits have claimed Vettel could be on the verge of an F1 exit. Timo Glock told Sky Germany that it was likely Vettel would “lose his patience” at some point as he knows how long it could take to fix.

Paul di Resta also warned Vettel looked “disinterested” over the Melbourne race weekend.

He said: “He just looks disinterested, I don’t know that’s the impression I get. I’ve known Seb for a long time. we were team-mates in 2006 and that’s not the body language when you get the best out of him.”

Vettel looked on the verge of F1 retirement at the end of the 2020 season when his Ferrari deal was not renewed.

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Vettel crashed multiple times last weekend (Image: Getty)

However, he decided to sign a deal with Aston Martin who had been competitive under its Racing Point guise throughout that season. Team principal Mile Krack has defended his driver, claiming there were no issues with Vettel.

He said: “Everything is fine with Seb [Vettel]. The fact that a driver like him, a four-time world champion, has so many problems over a weekend has nothing to do with his driving performance. It’s not normal when a driver of his calibre is off the track so often over a weekend.

“It has nothing to do with missing two races. He’s won several times in Melbourne. He knows where to go around here. It would be too easy to blame the performance on the two-race break.”