Vettel’s brutally honest admission on his final years at Ferrari

In a candid retrospective, Sebastian Vettel has pulled back the curtain on one of the most debated chapters of his Formula 1 career: his bruising final years at Ferrari.

The now retired four-time world champion has admitted that the balance of power at the time with Charles Leclerc wasn’t just about talent or machinery. It was about timing, momentum, and a veteran who knew – even then – that he was no longer climbing, but descending.

As Ferrari slid from title contention into frustration between 2019 and 2020, Vettel says the internal contrast between himself and his younger teammate became impossible to ignore.

A Champion Past His Peak

Leclerc arrived at Ferrari in 2019 as the next great hope, joining a team that Vettel had spent the previous two seasons dragging into championship fights against Lewis Hamilton.

While the Scuderia briefly teased competitiveness, Mercedes quickly seized control, and the Italian outfit’s title dream dissolved.

Leclerc still outscored Vettel across the season and claimed two victories to Vettel’s one – a turning point that quietly reshaped Ferrari’s future plans. By the end of 2020, Vettel was out.

Now, with the benefit of distance and reflection, Vettel admits that Leclerc’s arrival coincided with a moment when his own competitive edge was beginning to dull.

“I came to Formula 1 in 2006, ‘07 and I would say already by 2010 – obviously I won the championship – I was sort of at my peak,” he said on a recent episode of F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.

“But then in 2011, I was much more ready to win the championship than I was in 2010, for example, and then probably strong years, obviously winning the championship.

“2015 was a very strong year, ’17, ’18 – and then ’19 and in fairness ’20, I was on my way down already. I’m happy to say that now because I didn’t have that, really, last ultimate push anymore.”

It’s a striking admission from a driver whose career was built on relentless intensity – and one that reframes Ferrari’s internal struggles as more psychological than technical.

Energy vs Experience

Vettel believes Ferrari’s dip in form during 2019 hit him harder mentally than it did Leclerc. The SF90, while flawed, was still a step up from anything Leclerc had driven before. For Vettel, it was another reminder of ground lost.

“Charles had so much energy,” Vettel explained. “In fairness I was spoiled – I mean, I won four championships, I won so many races, I had so many poles, whatever.

“All I was interested in was winning, and that’s the sort of athlete I was: I wanted to win, I wanted the biggest trophy, I wanted that moment on the podium where I knew I won the race, I wanted the Monday morning feeling of ‘I won the last race and feel so good’, but the feeling doesn’t last long enough so you’ve got to win another one.

“And Charles came in, and when we finished fifth and sixth he was over the moon with a fifth and sixth, because [it was a] different stage of his career and the first time in a competitive car. I think that’s when I started to struggle a bit.”

Where Leclerc saw progress, Vettel saw failure. Where the young Monegasque found fuel, the German found friction.

That gap only widened in 2020. Ferrari’s underpowered SF1000 was uncompetitive, Vettel endured one of the toughest seasons of his career, and the world itself slowed to a halt due to the global pandemic.

“Then 2020 comes along, really awkward year with COVID, we’re not racing, I get this fantastic break that I never had and enjoyed it so much with the family.”

• Read also: Vettel pays tribute to Marko as kingmaker steps aside

As his priorities shifted toward fatherhood and global issues, the cut-throat nature of F1 began to fade.

“At the same time [I was] becoming aware with the kids growing of problems in the world and how they started to affect me and I’m reflecting them,” he concluded.

“I would say at that time I was probably not on the peak anymore.”

In hindsight, Vettel’s Ferrari finale now reads less like a sudden fall and more like a gradual release – a champion running out of reasons to chase Mondays, while his successor was just discovering them.

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