53-time Grand Prix winner, 4-time World Champion and Formula 1 great Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement from F1 in July 2022. He first joined in 2007 at the age of 19 and has been one of the most successful drivers to ever grace the circuit. His retirement has caused heart break for so many fans and he will be forever missed.

On Sunday 20th November, Sebastian Vettel broke fans hearts by completing his last ever race in Abu Dhabi and ended in the points with P10. In true F1 fashion, Vettel finished his race with the traditional doughnuts (spinning the car in circlesleaving trails of smoke) but unfortunately couldn’t complete these with old track mates Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, due to them having to retire their cars earlier on in the race. Nonetheless, Vettel still left the track in style and with some additional wise words of wisdom about his journey and the importance of doing good. 

The weekend at the Yas Marina Circuit was filled with wonderful tributes and farewells to Sebastian Vettel. On the Thursday night, all 20 drivers united for Vettel’s retirement dinner and many then shared some cheerful images to their social media accounts, to spread the love they have for their fellow driver. Some did individual tributes like Mercedes driver, George Russell, and Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen, did a helmet a swap with one of their F1 heroes and Fernando Alonso put the German flag running down his helmet, which is copying something Vettel had done more frequently. Not only drivers, but teams left Vettel with some goodbyes, for example, Red Bull (who he won his four titles for) posted a video showing his most successful years and Ferrari (2015-20) gave a gift to their former driver of an engine signed by all mechanics and their drivers,(one of which is Vettel’s former team mate). In a final tear-provoking tribute to one of F1 all time greats, on race day the rest of the drivers gave Sebastian Vettel a beautiful guard of honour. 

All of these heart-warming tributes left all lovers of F1 fans feeling bittersweet about Vettel’s departure. However, the German driver left tributes of his own the grand one being the run he organised around the circuit on Saturday night. Participants wore T-shirts with ‘Danke Seb’ translating to ‘thank you Seb’ to show their appreciation for all he has done for the sport and outside the track. The driver wore a shirt with the words ‘Danke Formula 1’. Additionally, to show his own appreciation for the love and support he has received over his 15-year career, Vettel had a special helmet with pictures of fans on. He gave them the opportunity to bid for a place on his last ever helmet and gave all the proceeds over to an environmental charity.

Sebastian Vettel is a name that will forever be in the Formula 1 history books as one of the all-time greats. He is the youngest World Champion driver and has been a positive force for good on and off the track. He has had a phenomenal career and is going to leave a Seb-sized whole in F1. I am sure all F1 fans and workers have one thing to say to this all-timelegend and that is: Danke Seb.