In an interview with the media after the race in Abu Dhabi today, Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel finished his Red Bull career with a disappointing eighth place in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Having confirmed that he will join Ferrari next year, the German was hoping to end on a high but it has been a difficult couple of days as he started from the back of the grid with Red Bull excluded from qualifying.
Vettel made his way through the traffic during the race but his charge was halted when he got stuck behind the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen for a long period. In his interview with the media after the race today, Vettel stated the following on his race performance:-
‘I felt there was more, but once I got stuck behind Kevin at the beginning it was quite tough, so I can’t be completely happy with today; when you race you want to finish as high up as you can and today I think we had the pace to finish higher.’
It would seem from what Vettel has stated to the media that he felt he had more pace and performance in the car today. However, being stuck behind Magnussen did not help him but he did everything that he could do today in the race, given the fact that he started from the pit lane due to him being disqualified from qualifying yesterday.
Despite a poor finish, Vettel leaves Red Bull with four Drivers’ Championship and plenty of experience. Further on in his interview, Vettel has nothing but happy memories of his time with Red Bull. Vettel added the following:-
‘I think the last six years have been an incredible journey, obviously we didn’t expect that when we started working together – you can never expect four Driver titles and four Constructors’ Championships in a row.
‘You get to know some people in a very good way and build friendships that will last a long time. You go through happy days and sad days, you go through them together and I think I learned a lot. I’d like to thank Red Bull and the Team for everything they did and I will miss them. I feel ready for the next step.’
As Vettel says himself, he has an amazing six years with the team and has achieved success that many drivers on the grid would only dream of. Of course Vettel has been extremely lucky to be in the right place at the right time to achieve the success that he has, but without the personnel who work for the team at the track and in the factory, this wouldn’t have been possible.
It is clear that Vettel has learnt a lot as a person and a driver from his time at Red Bull which he will look back on fondly and will use this when he starts at Ferrari in 2015. To publically thank the team for everything is really nice to see from Vettel and I know that he appreciates everything they have done for him and have helped him get to into Formula One firstly and also become Drivers Champion for four consecutive years too.
No matter what happens when Vettel moves to Ferrari for 2015, the Red Bull and Vettel years will be looked back upon for years to come and will be a benchmark for Vettel to look back on and replicate in his new challenge at Ferrari. And if anyone can do it, it is Vettel.
But it is now the end of an era with the Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel partnership; a partnership that has been successful and has brought an unbelievable amount of success that any team on the grid currently aspire and aim to achieve in Formula One. And it is a partnership that has shown that if you can get the right people, the right driver and most importantly a competitive car together, anything can be possible.
