With just four races left of the 2022 season, it is four more opportunities for Sebastian Vettel to drive a Formula 1 car competitively as he retires at the end of the year. But after 13 years competing at the highest level of motorsport, who does Vettel think was his toughest rival on track? "Lewis [Hamilton], especially when I was at Ferrari. Lewis has always been right up there," said Vettel in an interview with Aston Martin. During his period at Ferrari between 2015 and 2019, Vettel was involved in numerous challenges for the World Championship with Hamilton. The closest was in 2017 when it went right up to the final races of the season. He added: "Before that [period with Hamilton], it was probably Fernando when he was at Ferrari." When he raced for Red Bull he was also involved in numerous title scraps with Fernando Alonso, with the 2012 season going down to the last race of the season in Brazil. There Vettel had to climb back through the field in tricky conditions with a damaged car, eventually going on to take his third title in a row.
Vettel: You 'get used' to winning
During his time in F1 there were periods of total domination from Vettel, the most famous coming during the 2013 season when he won all nine of the remaining races of the season after the summer break. But did the lack of challenge from other teams and winning ever get boring for Vettel? "You do get used to it. But when you're not winning anymore, you think about how good it would feel to win again," he said. "When you do win again, it's a big moment and it means more to you than the previous win because of the emptiness in between."
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