While the day before Red Bull and Racing Point had hinted that they might hire Sebastian Vettel in 2021, all the doors finally closed in front of him.
Tough is this 2020 championship for the German. Fired by Ferrari in May, Sebastian Vettel, despite being a four-time world champion, is now seeing all the doors close in front of him.
On Wednesday, it was Renault who elected to bring Fernando Alonso back into F1 instead of considering Vettel. Then on Friday, it was Christian Horner, the boss of the Red Bull team, who admitted having “discussed” with his former driver (who has four world titles to his team), adding that there was “no room” for him at Red Bull:
“We are very satisfied with our current pair. Alex has his whole future ahead of him, we see no reason to replace him, although I am aware that this decision will probably result in Sebastian being excluded from the grid.”
The last realistic possibility for the German driver is Racing Point. Team boss Otmar Szafnauer felt compelled to say that: “Our lawyers have made it clear that our two drivers have contracts that cannot be terminated. We don’t have room for Sebastian,” regrets the American who runs the team.
Now Sebastian Vettel has only the choice of retiring or taking a sabbatical or look to possibly drive for Haas, Alfa Tauri or Williams. He’s made a lot of mistakes in recent years, and his value to the team bosses has obviously fallen to zero. For now…
Ferrari drivers break F1 COVID 19 protocol
Formula One announced on Friday that it has completed 4566 tests among the paddock members since Friday, July 3th.
To date, all these tests have been negative. The health protocol adopted by F1 seems to be validated by the facts. But the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile is keeping a watchful eye.
On Friday, it requested Charles Leclerc to answer why his broke protocol during the three days of break that elapsed between the two consecutive Grand Prix on the Spielberg circuit.
The Monegasque went home, and on Tuesday, he was seen in Monaco, in a restaurant, with friends and without a mask. Mattia Binotto, the boss, warned him, just as he did with Sebastian Vettel, who was also seen outside his “bubble”, and in discussion with the Red Bull bosses. No doubt attempting to secure a drive.
“It’s important that Seb and Charles realise how important it is to be here and to race, for all of us. Being distracted by protocol is not a good thing.” warned Binotto.
