Sebastian Vettel made his final Formula 1 start at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 20 November 2022, closing a career that brought four World Championships and 53 Grand Prix wins.
The weekend carried a rare warmth for a modern F1 farewell. Vettel had arrived in the sport as a fierce young Red Bull prodigy and left it as a widely respected elder statesman, increasingly vocal on environmental and social issues and rather less interested in pretending racing existed in a vacuum.
One last point
At Yas Marina, Vettel raced for Aston Martin and finished tenth, scoring the final point of his career. The result was modest compared with his peak years, but it suited the ending well enough. He was still competitive, still engaged and still capable of pulling something useful from a race that was not built around him.
His final outing also marked his 300th Grand Prix entry and 299th start, a statistical quirk that sat alongside a much larger record: youngest champion at the time, four consecutive titles with Red Bull, and one of the most dominant driver-team peaks of the modern era.
From dominance to perspective
Vettel’s career changed shape over time. The Red Bull years brought relentless winning. The Ferrari years brought near-misses, pressure and public scrutiny. Aston Martin gave him a different role, less about titles and more about experience, leadership and perspective.
Abu Dhabi 2022 was not the end of a title fight. It was the end of a complete F1 life: prodigy, champion, Ferrari hope, mentor and one of the few drivers whose reputation became broader after the winning slowed.
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