LEGENDS: Sebastian Vettel’s World Champion wisdom

F1 Beyond The Grid

karenellenbevan

News, Leisure, Sports News, Sports, Automotive

4.7 • 5.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Winning four Formula 1 World Championships is a feat only six elite drivers have achieved. Competing under the highest pressure, year after year, has given Sebastian Vettel rare racing insight. Since retiring from the sport in 2022, he’s been raising awareness of causes he cares about, and reflecting on his career – the peaks, how he learned to balance risks and rewards, and the years where his competitive fire started to fade.

The four-time World Champion looks back at his life on the F1 grid with Tom Clarkson. He gives his thoughts on the three drivers racing for the 2025 title: how he admires Lando Norris for being a role model, why he thinks Max Verstappen is under less pressure than his rivals, and how Oscar Piastri’s intelligence impresses him.

Sebastian also remembers his time racing at Ferrari, and why he felt he was ‘on his way down’ in his final years with the team. Plus, he shares the advice he gave friend and rival Lewis Hamilton before he joined the Scuderia.

This episode is sponsored by:

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Transcript

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0:00.0	He's the driver whose first F1 victory stunned the sport.
0:05.0	Sebastian Vettel is a Grand Prix winner.
0:09.0	He's the four-time champion who defined an era.
0:16.0	You're best Veltbeister.
0:19.0	Thank you, boy. Unbelievable.
0:21.6	Thank you.
0:22.6	I love you.
0:24.6	It's three years since Sebastian Vettel's final Grand Prix.
0:29.6	And in that time, he's been using his influence to make positive change.
0:34.6	He's also had time to reflect on his life as a racing driver.
0:39.6	2010, obviously, I won the championship. I was sort of at my peak. But then in 11, I was much
0:45.3	more ready to win the championship than I was in 2010, for example. Then 19, and in fairness, 20,
0:52.6	I was on my way down already. and I'm happy to say that now
0:56.3	because I didn't have that really last ultimate push anymore.
1:02.7	Did you know it at the time?
1:04.1	No, I didn't.
1:05.1	I didn't.
1:09.9	I'm Tom Clarkson.
1:11.2	This is F1 Beyond the Grid.
1:14.9	I sat down with Sebastian Vettel to look back on his first win in 2008 with Toro Rosso,
1:21.1	dominating with Red Bull, the burning desire he felt to win a world championship with Ferrari,
1:27.0	and how, even while he was racing in red,
	...

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