This is it. Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will retire from Formula 1 at the end of the season.
The German, who made his debut with BMW Sauber in the 2007 United States Grand Prix, revealed the news via his newly created Instagram account – his first foray into social media.
Vettel won all four of his championships with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013 and is third on the all-time list of Grand Prix winners with 53 victories.
The news of his decision to retire from Formula 1 came as a surprise to those who gave Sebastian Vettel credit a week earlier in the French Grand Prix. And the four-time champion clarified on Thursday that he made the decision just one day before announcing it.
His attitude over the last year, where he almost never talks about Formula 1, focusing on environmental issues instead, foreshadowed his potential retirement.
“The timeline [of the decision] takes us back years,” Vettel said.
“It’s not a decision I made overnight. The final decision was taken yesterday by telling the team I am going to stop and not going to continue, but there was a lot of thought leading into this.”
