Vettel says maybe he should not have picked some fights

The 33-year-old German, who won his titles with Red Bull, is joining Aston Martin – the renamed Racing Point team – for 2021.

He leaves Ferrari after a difficult 2019 season, out-performed by young teammate Charles Leclerc, and a disappointing 2020 with a power unit lacking the performance of rivals.

“I don’t think I will go on having any regrets, looking back,” Vettel said in an extensive interview with Formula One’s Beyond the Grid podcast.

“It is true that I have failed because I set myself the mission or the target to win the championship with Ferrari, I have failed; I didn’t manage to do that.

“There are things that I should have done better, things that maybe I should have seen earlier, fights that maybe I shouldn’t have picked,” he added, without seeking to make excuses.

“But then again, I think everything that happened brought me to where I am now.”

Vettel will be the only German racing in this weekend’s Eifel Grand Prix at the Nuerburgring, a circuit where he won with Red Bull in 2013 – the last time Formula One visited the track.

Questioned further on the fights he alluded to, the sport’s third most successful driver elaborated:

“I think that maybe looking back they weren’t worth fighting … but then again part of it is probably my nature and it was natural to do so, and I think I had a point as well in some of these little fights and battles.”

The German, a father of three who married his long-time partner Hanna last year, said he had learned a lot in six seasons with Ferrari but was looking forward to a fresh start in England.

Reuters