Finding Calm While Driving a Car That Could Kill Me
By Sebastian Vettel
As a Formula 1 racer, I could disappear and forget about time. Now, my greatest joy is discovering what puts me in the present.
I am not a speed addict, but I relish high speeds. While I’m now retired, I spent 16 seasons as a Formula 1 driver. Racing at over 200 miles per hour became second nature to me.
It sounds crazy, but being behind the wheel of a car that could kill me became my safe place. All the noise in my life grew quiet the moment I jumped into my racecar. This dangerous environment was where I felt most alive and calm. Despite being under ultrahigh stress, it was the place where everything slowed down. It was as if I could disappear and forget about time.
My love of driving began after I received a small go-kart as a childhood Christmas present. I grew up in Heppenheim, Germany. Since the backyard of our house was too tight to make turns around, my father poured out a large bucket of water and taught me how to drift as a technique to avoid crashing into a wall. I became infatuated with the rush and control of driving. I found something that gave me confidence and self-efficacy. Eventually, I started racing others, and I craved the sensation of speed.
But F1 racing is not only about pure speed. It is about how late you dare to brake and how fast you can manage to get around the next corner. It is about trial and error, and testing different approaches to go faster. Racing was where my mind could play and grow.
While I usually prefer cold, quiet and spacious environments, the extremely hot, noisy narrowness behind the wheel of a racecar is where I am most comfortable. I found it was the one place where I happily embraced the dichotomy of life.
Sometimes, this was a mental contrast in the intense moments leading up to championship-deciding races, when all my hard work boiled down to a few laps. I remember thinking that I couldn’t wait for the race to start, and I also didn’t want the race to start.
There were moments when I lost control of the car because something broke or I simply pushed too hard. I’ve had my fair share of crashes. Even though a crash occurs very quickly, when it happens, time seems to slow down. You begin to realize the shattering reality and consequences of chasing high speeds. The brutal force of a crash reminds you of what you’re playing with. But I kept racing.
In more than two decades of racing, there was a single time when I seriously questioned jumping into the car again. It was during the Belgian Grand Prix in August 2019, after a young French driver, Anthoine Hubert, lost his life in a racing accident at age 22.
I have had accidents myself, but they were fortunately only minor ones. I have seen others crash, too. But that young man had his whole life ahead of him, and it just stopped with all of us watching.
I called my wife, Hanna, and told her I did not want to race the next day after the accident. I slept poorly that night; yet I decided to race. After that weekend, I felt differently about my sport, which I only grasped after I retired. I was never afraid of the speeds, but now I could see them, not just feel them. I began to experience a responsibility that I had not had before. I started to understand that speed, progress and innovation only matter if they move us in the right direction.
Today, I live a slower life and run a little farm. I still love high speeds, but I have simply stopped racing time. I learned that the greatest joy is to discover something in your life that puts you in the here and now. Passing this lesson on to my children is my real job today. Spending time with them and watching them grow up makes me extremely aware that the time we are given is limited. As an F1 driver and a father, I did not — and cannot — beat time. Time is too fast to hold on to; it will always be faster than me, whether I am racing it or not.
I recognize that I might have been using racing to avoid dealing with tough situations. Racing was my escape. We all have times when we would like to disappear and avoid difficult things. But in the end, this is impossible. We must face the hard times head-on and take the time to slow down to do so.
When people ask me about my best race, I say that it is still to come. I have plenty to look forward to. These days I enjoy the process of exploration rather than the result. I learned that my life is not about finding the next big thing, but about trusting my curiosity.
I realized that there is more than one passion or race I can pursue. In the journey of self-discovery, no matter how fast you go, there are no shortcuts.
there's a chapter in bernie's book 'how to win a grand prix' (so good btw) where she details what it’s like for the crew to travel around the world. there's just a small line in it, but i really think sums up seb's character as a whole -
japanese hotels have the tiniest rooms imaginable, mainly because they're dealing with businessmen with no luggage who are only staying for just one night. (...) i guess the biggest problem is the little rice pillows they use in that part of the world. they're very small and uncomfortable by our standards.
on one occasion with aston martin, team members were complaining so much that one of our drivers, sebastian vettel, went out and bought everyone a roll-up travel pillow. that was really good – and typical of seb. i've kept my pillow and bring it with me each time i go to japan.
like it's such a small thing but idk ❤️🩹 reading things like that just makes me miss him more
having a favorite athlete is so funny. like he can do anything idgaf. I DON'T care if he does stupid shit. I don't care if he has monumental headloss over unnecessary things. I don't care if he's clinically insane. he's my dude. I find him entertaining and ridiculous and very sexy all in equal measure
Eddie Jordan's words about Seb(2011): "In the past the sponsors. And indeed the pundits or people are paying. The marshalls and people are working are kinda of put in another side shelf. And that's not the case with Sebastian. He has embraced them. he has make sure he thanks them. Even the first thing he did when he gets over the line. He goes on and on. Sometimes it's becoming a bit boring because he does it too often. but he's very mindful. he's a very well brought up man. he's a joy to have as our world champion."
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Someone explaining mark x seb rivalry making a massive amount of mistakes.
Mark didn't "think" not even "suspect" the team was prioritizing Seb. The team was in fact prioritizing Seb. Sebastian didn't "immediately outperform" Mark in 2009, Sebastian made the jump to the team right as they got a better more competitive car and Mark was almost even to him given the fact that he had had an accident in 2008 and he was getting SCREWS removed from his leg still in 2009. He still finnished 4th to Sebastians second.
And him "underperforming" didn't make him a number two driver. The team forced him to be a number 2 driver. His iconic line "not bad for a number two driver" as he won in silverstone was specifically because Sebastian had broken a front wing and the team took Mark's front wing straight from his car and then gave Mark an older lesser model. Again, mark went to win this race.
Also multi 21 wasnt just "a debacle". Sebastian disobeyed direct, explicit team orders. Mark called it out and said Sebastian wouldnt see repercussions. Mark was correct. End of it.
Sebastian got booed and had haters (aside from the organic amount of haters you get for just existing) because he talked walked and quacked like an asshole.
Hi i know you wanted to make good faith criticism but i double checked before claiming that they took marks front wing, this is from skysports at the time "Horner had sanctioned the removal of an updated front wing from Webber's car for team-mate Sebastian Vettel to use during qualifying at Silverstone". Other sources claim the same in the same way, they took it off his car.
The phrasing he'd broken his front wing can contain the action of breaking due to vibration. But a few sources claim "he broke it" in the same neutral way I put it to begin with.
The source for the idea Mark didnt want it (wasnt using it is not mentioned anywhere I saw? The contrary, as i linked above--if they took it from his car he was using it in during testing and had it poached for qualy) is "an unnamed senior engineer" and only one source claims this case. That STINKS like red bull trying to make mark look bad.
On the other hand whether Sebastian was an asshole or not is a matter of opinion. I think he was.
the "mark didn't like the new front wing" part comes from Adrian Newey's book "how to build a car" chapter 71. again I like mark very much and I get why him and his fans are upset about seb/rbr. those feelings are valid sometimes. I won't argue anymore since the asshole part is just a opinion. agree to disagree.
Someone explaining mark x seb rivalry making a massive amount of mistakes.
Mark didn't "think" not even "suspect" the team was prioritizing Seb. The team was in fact prioritizing Seb. Sebastian didn't "immediately outperform" Mark in 2009, Sebastian made the jump to the team right as they got a better more competitive car and Mark was almost even to him given the fact that he had had an accident in 2008 and he was getting SCREWS removed from his leg still in 2009. He still finnished 4th to Sebastians second.
And him "underperforming" didn't make him a number two driver. The team forced him to be a number 2 driver. His iconic line "not bad for a number two driver" as he won in silverstone was specifically because Sebastian had broken a front wing and the team took Mark's front wing straight from his car and then gave Mark an older lesser model. Again, mark went to win this race.
Also multi 21 wasnt just "a debacle". Sebastian disobeyed direct, explicit team orders. Mark called it out and said Sebastian wouldnt see repercussions. Mark was correct. End of it.
Sebastian got booed and had haters (aside from the organic amount of haters you get for just existing) because he talked walked and quacked like an asshole.
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