Sebastian Vettel bids farewell to 'Gina' with a heavy heart

This week in Abu Dhabi , Sebastian Vettel enjoyed one last outing behind the wheel of Ferrari's SF70H, a car he will thoroughly miss.

With five wins this season, all courtesy of the German driver, the Scuderia's 2017 charger - which Vettel nicknamed 'Gina' following his habit of naming his cars - was the team's most successful machine since Fernando Alonso's F10 in 2010.

"I will miss it, I think it was a fun season and it's a bit of a shame that it's over," said Vettel.

"I would've liked to have another five races, then I think we would be in good shape! But yeah, looking forward there's a lot of stuff going on for next year, so quite excited as well."

Given the incredibly sophisticated technology imbedded in the current generation of hybrid F1 cars and the engineering resources required to operate them, Vettel doesn't believe he'll be seeing 'Gina' any time soon.

• Santander confirms end of partnership with Ferrari

"Nowadays it is not so easy to operate the car so it was the last time.

"In the past it was [easy to run them] and every now and then you could go back, with the V8s, but with these power units it's more complex, it makes no sense."

Looking to 2018, Vettel isn't excited by the prospect of racing next season with F1's mandatory Halo safety device sitting in his line of sight, and in the sorry sight of the fans.

"I'm not looking forward to it, but it's part of the game," Vettel said.

"I'm sure we'll get used to it. I've tried now a couple of times, for sure some things need to change, like the start lights on the grid.

"You need to play around a little bit -- but I think we will when we get to next year's cars. But yeah it's in the front of your face, in front of your helmet -- you get used to it, though.

"What you need to see, you can still see, otherwise we wouldn't introduce it."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter