Sebastian Vettel’s resignation announcement is now more than a week ago. In our current print edition, our motorsport expert Bianca Garloff reacts to the farewell of the four-time world champion at the end of the season. We also publish the “Letter to Vettel” here.
“Dear Sebastian, you surprised the Formula 1 world by retiring at the end of the season. With a video on your newly founded Instagram channel, in which you explain in black and white why you are retiring after 16 years on the Formula 1 hamster wheel. But those who know you were not surprised.
Motorsport expert Bianca Garloff accompanied Sebastian Vettel for a long time.
Just three years later you were a Formula 1 driver. You made your debut for BMW-Sauber in Indianapolis: Eighth place and your first World Championship point, even though your father brought you a feeding bottle. As a symbol for the Bubi-Schumi. You didn’t think that was funny.
The fact that just two years later you were to become world champion with Red Bull for the first time (youngest of all time!) – and then win three more world titles, was beyond imagination. You became the superstar of Formula 1. And yet you always remained yourself: honest, authentic, apolitical.
Vettel was on the verge of reviving the Schumacher era at Ferrari.
At the end of the year, you, one of the greatest German athletes, will retire. One of the best racers of all time. But you didn’t achieve your most important achievement in a racing car: the fact that you look beyond the crown of Formula 1, that you are socially and ecologically committed even against resistance and that you now take off your helmet to spend more time with your family deserves admiration.
Keep it up because there’s one more race to win… Yours, Bianca Garloff
