Sebastian Vettel’s deeds stand for themselves. He has won as many championships as Alain Prost – four. Only Juan Manuel Fangio (five) and the seven-time wonders of this world have claimed more than the great Argentine: Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher.

This places Vettel in the very highest rank of drivers ever known.

On a personal level, I like Seb. I first knew him when he was arriving on the Formula One scene. A colleague and I were having dinner at BMW Sauber’s motorhome and he came scampering over. A devotee of English humour, not least of Only Fools and Horses he was most amused by a new word he had heard: ‘kerfuffle’.

It had come over his radio from the pit wall, and he was fascinated by it.

Further, and far more importantly, he spoke brilliantly, movingly and eruditely many years later at a tribute at Silverstone to the memory of respected race director Charlie Whiting, who had died suddenly at the Australian Grand Prix, in 2019. Seb was a director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association at this point, and none of his contemporaries could have delivered a eulogy in a second language as eloquently about Charlie as Seb did that evening.

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel enjoyed a distinguished career during his 15 years in Formula One

Not only is the German one of the greatest drivers of all time, but he is one of the sport’s most cherished personalities

He was as smart as he was genuine, too. No driver of the modern era was as friendly with Bernie Ecclestone, then the biggest figure in the whole sport. They played backgammon together. Bernie usually won. Their relationship was obviously warm, and I believe it remains so.

So having told you how much I like Seb, I don’t for a moment believe he should join Mercedes as Hamilton’s replacement next season. A further caveat, his talent as a wonderfully fast driver, especially when a front-runner, is not in doubt. But he drifted into an ordinary standard in the his last years at Ferrari and Aston Martin, mistakes abounding.

He retired in 2022, aged 35, harangued in his own mind about the green implications of his globe-trotting sport. ‘Climate Justice Now’, he wore on his T-shirt. He was worried about the planet, yet he went on to the end of the season.

I sent him up for his delay, a cake-and-eat-it paradox. For his part, he said he drove to races rather than flew where applicable to save us all from oblivion.

Mercedes have courted him for years. I reported how Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principal, had attended Vettel’s 30th-birthday party in Switzerland. Mercedes tried to get me sacked for this. True. They said I didn’t know what I was talking about. I said I had the story from a Mercedes source. They cried ‘lies’. Now he is sadly dead, I can reveal that I got the information from Niki Lauda, no less, and he was the non-executive chairman of Mercedes at the time.

Hamilton has welcomed Vettel’s interest in joining, explored this week in his interview with Sky.

Hamilton would. He knows that Vettel, whose championship-winning salad days were at Red Bull between 2010 and 2013 (including nine consecutive wins), would be no threat to his legacy, his friend’s talent having waned. No question. Fourteen wins during his six years at Ferrari was a meagre return, really. His nadir was binning it in Hockenheim in 2018 while leading his home race. He moved to Aston Martin, his powers declining.

But Vettel stepped away from the sport in 2022 citing concerns of the F1’s impact on climate change

A return to racing with Mercedes would ultimately not prove to be a wise move for Vettel

He was no longer at the peak of his powers when he retired, and Mercedes would be better served looking to the future as they attempt to replace Lewis Hamilton

The point is that he has left Formula One for a reason – he was done with it. He now says (and I cite his Sky interview) he misses the competition, but not enough to have walked out on the sport to start with.

As for Mercedes’ future, they need rejuvenation, not a figure from the past. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, winner in Melbourne only a fortnight ago, is, I think, a far more alluring prospect to partner George Russell next season and beyond.

Vettel, too, would grow annoyed by what is going to be a long game of rebuilding at the Silver Arrows. He is 37, a great chap, but retirement with his wife and three kids is where he should remain. A new beginning at Mercedes would work for neither side.