August 26, 2022
Formula One’s silly season is at full speed as the championship returns from its summer break, and as usual, there was a lot of activity taking place despite the pause on the track.
With Formula One’s summer break coming to end an end, and teams gearing up for tomorrow’s practice sessions at the Belgian Grand Prix, there are several notable changes coming down the pipeline.
The main one being the retirement of four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel, who is leaving to, as he puts it, “spend more time with his family and less time with the Stroll family.” With that, comes a spur of jockeying as Formula One’s silly season kicked off.
Following Vettel’s decision to walk away from the sport, the announcement came that two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso would be leaving his seat at Alpine and moving the vacant spot at Aston Martin.
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“I find it difficult to reflect all these years, in just a short time,” said Vettel on his upcoming retirement from the sport. “So maybe it will hit me at some point later on. But yeah, I just enjoyed the break. The fact that the decision or the fact that I was carrying this decision around with me for such a long time in a way that it’s out felt quite liberating. So I could just enjoy the break and the time I had and also looking very much forward to the races that I have left. So yeah. But it didn’t feel like a different break. You know, it’s not like this is the last summer break. I think it’s difficult for any athlete, man or woman, to know what life is going to be like after you sort of step away from what you’ve done your whole life. But then again, I feel time will tell.”
“The phone call from Aston after Sebastian Vettel announced that he was stopping at the end of the year,” said Alonso. “At that point we sat down and we go to this agreement. I think the project is very attractive. Obviously there is a lot of investment going on in the last few years, a lot of new people came to the team, very talented engineers, designers, new facilities in Silverstone. So… I don’t know, I felt that it was a nice project for the future. They were extremely happy to join forces and to have this possibility to grow up together. We felt that it was the right thing to do.”
Then came news that Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren had agreed to part ways, leaving the Australian driver without a seat, as of yet, for next season. Surely though, Formula One’s honey badger won’t be without a spot for long.
“It’s obviously not the nicest feeling,” said Ricciardo, “but I can hold my head high in terms of applying myself and trying to make it work, like trying to put everything in. Sometimes you just have to accept that, okay, I try it and it didn’t necessarily work out. But, from that point of view, I don’t look back in terms of ‘man, I was slacking off, and that’s why, like, I earned this’, or whatever. It’s just one of those things. I’m proud of the way we tried to make it happen and persist through it, but some things maybe you just say that they’re not meant to be.”
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“I still love the sport” continued Ricciardo, “and I think through all of this – I guess call it adversity – I haven’t lost that confidence in myself. For sure, we’ve had some tough weekends and you can’t help but show emotion sometimes but I still love it and I still want to do it competitively. I want to do it in the right place. I never said I want to just be a driver to make up the numbers. You know, if I’m here I want to be here for a purpose. So, I don’t know what that means yet for the future. But of course, if it’s the right opportunity, then this is where I want to be.”
The Formula One grid is shaping up to look quite different next season.
