Sebastian Vettel on the advice given to him by Michael Schumacher

Sebastian Vettel has reflected on the advice Michael Schumacher once gave to him, which only with time began to make sense.

When Vettel was in his younger years, looking to carve out a racing career of his own, his hero Michael Schumacher was dominating the Formula 1 scene, ultimately going on to become a seven-time World Champion.

Although both drivers largely competed in different eras of Formula 1, there was a period when Vettel and Schumacher shared the track together.

Schumacher came out of retirement to join the Mercedes team from 2010, remaining with the outfit until 2012, with Vettel claiming three of his four successive World Championships in that time.

Vettel and Schumacher also competed alongside each other at the Race of Champions event, winning the Nations’ Cup six times in a row.

Before all of that though, a “very young” Vettel received some words of wisdom from Schumacher, which initially, he thought offered him very little. Afterwards though, he would see the value in what Schumacher had said.

“I spoke with Michael when I was very young,” Vettel said in Aston Martin’s new ‘At The Bar’ series, presented by Peroni Nastro Azzurro 0.0%.

“And I don’t think if he meant to give advice, but I think he said something along the lines of ‘just enjoy yourself, just have fun, like enjoy what you do, love what you do’.

“And I was a bit disappointed in the moment because I thought ‘you need to tell me something that, you know, I can work with’.

“I definitely only understood after, or later.”

Understandably, when asked who, if there was just one lap together, Vettel would choose to put in the other car, Schumacher was one of his choices, though there was another star of the early 1990s who made it a tie.

Unable to pick just one driver, there was also a mention for a champion of the 1970s.

“There’s the early 90s, I’m always split, or the 70s when the cars were very raw,” said Vettel.

“Then probably early 90s would be Michael and Ayrton [Senna], so I’d take two, and in the 70s, Jochen Rindt, because they are my sort of heroes.”

Returning to the subject of his Formula 1 career, Vettel would explain how he remains very much in the loop on the karting scene, naming fellow drivers like George Russell and Lando Norris as talent that he saw on the rise in their karting days.

Vettel will retire from Formula 1 at the end of the 2022 season and feels the time has come to make way for the younger drivers.

“I think after a while it’s also time to make way for the young kids,” he stated.

“I’m following go-karts still which is the grassroots and where I grew up as well. And I remember the days where I was sitting at grand prix weekends following the championships in go karts, and I read some names, like Lando Norris, George Russell, and they keep popping up in the international karting events.

“And then you see them progress and then the next moment he’s kicking your arse on the track or going side-by-side into the next corner.”

You can check out the full ‘At The Bar’ episode with Sebastian Vettel here:

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