Credits: Imago

Regarded as one of the most competitive drivers in his prime, Sebastian Vettel lived and breathed racing, not just on the track but off it. In fact, his competitiveness knew no bounds. Away from F1, while doing his daily chores, the 4-time world champion would do things like ‘take the racing line’ to reach his destination faster and ahead of others. However, those days are long gone. Vettel is no longer that menace he used to be, as he revealed in a recent interview.

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While talking about his life and future endeavors on The Fast and The Curious podcast recently, Vettel unraveled that he “calmed down” in life for his kids. The 36-year-old is a father of three. Therefore, he had to change his mindset to be an example to them.

“[I] calmed down a lot, I mean I was racing in the past in the supermarket, trying to be the first and you know overtake final meters to get ahead and stuff like that but I’ve calmed down,” said Vettel. “I need to be responsible nowadays, I’m a father of three kids so I need to set an example as well.”

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Even though he has become calmer in the aforementioned situations, his habit of hurrying through things remains. In the interview, Vettel  stated that he still cut corners here and there and while driving and joked that it’s still not illegal in the rule book.

However, the four-time world champion does not cut corners in traffic anymore, even though he misses the world of racing. Talking about the latter, the former Red Bull driver has been heavily linked to make an F1 return in 2025.

Sebastian Vettel’s chances of coming out of retirement

After 16 years in F1, 4 titles and 53 race wins, Sebastian Vettel hung up his helmet at the end of the 2022 season. His career full of magic and determination came to an end at the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP with Aston Martin. However, many experts and drivers, including Lewis Hamilton insisted at the time that Vettel would show up to the grid again, eventually.

Vettel admitted to being happy with retirement, and is enjoying his time with family at home. This is one of the reasons, the German former F1 driver feels he could choose to never return to the world of racing full-time.

Despite this, numerous reports linked Vettel to Lewis Hamilton’s soon-to-be vacant seat in Mercedes. To many, Vettel rounds up as the perfect replacement for Hamilton’s seat after the seven-time world champion moves to Ferrari next season. Vettel is a four-time champion, one of F1’s greatest and could Mercedes steer into a new era smoothly. Hamilton himself will be happy to see Vettel in Mercedes but would rather have the team prioritize youth (as per MailSport)

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However, an F1 return looks far away as Vettel remained tight-lipped over his return to the pinnacle of motorsport, even though he has been testing Porsche’s hypercar in rumored preparation for a full-time comeback.