Six-time race winner Ralf Schumacher said: “I have heard that Sebastian Vettel wants to drive again,'' claiming he could compensate for the lack of “charisma'' from George Russell at the front of the Mercedes team.
Mercedes has a big vacancy ahead of 2025, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton confirming he will move to Ferrari at that point.
Unsurprisingly, a number of drivers have been rumored for the soon-to-be-vacated Mercedes seat, including Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, Esteban Ocon and Mercedes' star junior candidate Andrea Kimi Antonelli. But another name thrown around in these conversations is Vettel.
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Four-time world champion Vettel retired from F1 at the end of the 2022 season, but has left the door open as to the idea of returning to the grid someday.
At 36 years old, he is younger than F1 veterans Alonso and Hamilton, but it is not impossible for Vettel to return due to his age, but does he have the motivation to do so? According to his compatriot Schumacher, the answer is yes.
“I heard that Sebastian Vettel wants to drive again,” Schumacher told Sky Germany.
“Of course now we have to close the gap. You know what happened in the stock market after Lewis Hamilton went to Ferrari, and that triggered something.”
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And Schumacher doubts whether Russell is up to the challenge and believes Vettel could be the man Mercedes needs to fill a Hamilton-type hole.
Hamilton is probably the most marketable driver on the F1 grid and statistically the most successful driver of all time, but Schumacher has enough “charisma” that Russell could step up and become a marketing giant for the Mercedes team. ” I don't think that I have it.
But he suggests 53-time Grand Prix winner Vettel, the iconic German racing figure and the team will join forces to carry out the task.
“Whether George Russell has the charisma to replace Lewis Hamilton around the world in terms of marketing, or whether he has the charisma to replace Sebastian Vettel as the German driver for Mercedes, it's probably a little bit for him. It would be too big,” Schumacher suggested.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff recently commented on Vettel speculation, revealing that although they are in “regular” contact, there has been no talk of him returning to F1 as a Mercedes driver. I made it.
Immediately after the shocking announcement of Hamilton's transfer to Ferrari, Wolff spoke to media such as PlanetF1.com about Vettel: We talk regularly.
“As we talked about yesterday, it wasn't about driving for us in the future.”
Vettel spent two seasons with Aston Martin before calling an end to his career after the 2022 season.
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