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Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will join the renowned Aston Martin team in Formula 1 next year.
Aston Martin said signing Vettel was “a clear statement of the team’s ambition” to establish itself at the front.
“It’s a new adventure for me with a truly legendary car company,” said Vettel, who replaces Sergio Pérez.
A statement from Aston Martin said Vettel had signed for “2021 and beyond” but did not confirm the length of the contract.
Normally, the German would be expected to have signed a three-year deal.
Vettel said: “I am very proud to say that I will become an Aston Martin driver in 2021.
“I am impressed with the results the team has achieved this year and I think the future looks even brighter.
“Lawrence’s Energy and Commitment [Stroll, the owner] Sport is inspiring and I believe that together we can build something very special.
“I still have a lot of love for Formula 1 and my only motivation is to race at the front of the grid. Doing it with Aston Martin will be a great privilege.”
Team principal Otmar Szafnauer said the team was “very excited” by the news.
“Sebastian is a proven champion and brings a winning mentality that matches our own ambitions for the future as the Aston Martin F1 Team,” he said.
“On a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, Sebastian is one of the best in the world, and I can’t think of a better driver to help us take us into this new era. He will play an important role in taking this team to the next level. “
Reputations to establish and revive
Racing Point has made a huge leap forward in 2020, emerging with the third-fastest car on the grid, although they have been surrounded by controversy for copying the 2019 Mercedes.
Last month 15 points were taken from them and they were fined 400,000 euros for illegally copying the brake lines of Mercedes 2019 and using them in their 2020 car. The case has led to clarifications of the rules for the next season that they have as Aim to prevent wholesale copying of one team’s car by another from happening again.
Vettel is one of the most successful drivers in F1 history.
His 53 racing wins is a tally second only to Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, and only Schumacher, Hamilton and Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio have more titles than him.
The Aston Martin name will enter F1 next year after both Racing Point and the famous sports car company were acquired by Stroll, a Canadian billionaire businessman.
The 61-year-old rescued the F1 team from management in 2018 and earlier this year took over Aston Martin, which had been going from one financial crisis to the next for some time.
Stroll made his fortune in fashion, but has had a lifelong fascination for F1 and has a large collection of classic cars.
Vettel’s signing required the breaking of Pérez’s contract. The Mexican, who brought money to the team from his financial backers, signed a contract with Racing Point last fall until the end of 2022.
But Ferrari’s decision to dispense with Vettel, taken before the season began, changed the landscape of the driver market and Stroll saw signing him as too good an opportunity to lose.
However, Vettel’s reputation is not what it was, after three difficult years at Ferrari.
Vettel won four straight titles with Red Bull from 2010-13 and joined Ferrari in 2015 after a year in which his new teammate Daniel Ricciardo had beaten him.
Vettel helped build Ferrari until they were title contenders against Hamilton and Mercedes in both 2017 and 2018, but each year they fell short, in part due to a series of driver errors.
These continued in 2019, when the highly rated Charles Leclerc joined the team.
Like Ricciardo, Leclerc beat Vettel in his first season with the team, despite the older man starting the year as the team’s official number one.
Leclerc scored more poles, outpointed Vettel more often than the other way around, won more runs and scored more points.
Additionally, there were a series of flash points between the two drivers as they battled for supremacy, culminating in their crashing together at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Ferrari decided to commit to Leclerc as the leader of its team and saw Vettel, as a proud and successful champion, as too great a distraction. So they decided not even to enter into negotiations with him and instead signed Spanish Carlos Sainz.
As such, while Vettel joining what will become Aston Martin is a huge blow to a team that was originally established as Jordan in 1991, it is also an opportunity for Vettel to rebuild its reputation in a new environment.
