Vettel to join Ferrari as Alonso exits

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (SportsNetwork.com) – Four-time Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel will replace two-time titleholder Fernando Alonso at Ferrari for the 2015 season, the Italian team confirmed on Thursday.

Ferrari announced that Vettel has signed a three-year agreement with the team. The 27-year-old German has driven for Red Bull since the start of the 2009 season. His F1 world championships came consecutively from 2010-13. Vettel will team with Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, at Ferrari. Raikkonen returned to the team for the 2014 season.

Vettel has won 39 grand prix and made 66 podium appearances in 138 F1 starts. He has also scored 45 pole positions. Vettel won a season-record-tying 13 races last year but has yet to score a victory this season. He is currently fourth in the championship standings.

“The next stage of my Formula 1 career will be spent with Scuderia Ferrari, and for me that means the dream of a lifetime has come true,” Vettel said. “When I was a kid, Michael Schumacher, in the red car, was my greatest idol, and now it’s an incredible honor to finally get the chance to drive a Ferrari.”

Last month, Vettel revealed that he was leaving Red Bull at the conclusion of this season. He did not announce his future plans at the time, but it had been expected that he would join Ferrari for next season.

F1 is running its last race of the year, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, on Sunday, with the drivers’ championship to be determined between Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Vettel’s best finish this season is second, which occurred in the Sept. 21 Singapore Grand Prix. He is a three-time winner of the Abu Dhabi GP, including a victory here last year.

“The success I’ve had in Formula One, especially with Red Bull Racing over the last four years, I think has been an incredible journey,” he said. “But I think at some stage you feel that you want to take on a new challenge and do something different. I think I don’t have to mention the history of Ferrari in the sport, and it’s probably the greatest team to drive for. I’m very excited and very motivated to try to do my best, to put my heart in it and be successful.”

Ferrari holds the record for most constructors’ championships with 16 but has not had a title since 2008. The team’s last drivers’ championship was seven years ago with Raikkonen. Michael Schumacher won five of his record seven F1 titles with Ferrari (2000-04).

“Scuderia Ferrari has decided to put its faith in the youngest multiple champion in the history of Formula 1,” team principal Marco Mattiacci said of Vettel’s signing with Ferrari. “In Formula 1 terms, Sebastian Vettel is a unique combination of youthfulness and experience, and he brings with him that sense of team spirit which will prove invaluable when, together with Kimi, they tackle the challenges awaiting us, as we aim to be front runners again as soon as possible.

“With Sebastian, we all share a thirst for victory as well as enthusiasm, a strong work ethic and tenacity; key elements for all the Scuderia members to write together a new winning chapter in the history of Ferrari.”

Ferrari made two separate announcements on Thursday — first with Alonso’s leaving the team at season’s end and then Vettel’s signing. Ferrari said in its statement of Alonso’s departure that the relationship between the driver and the team ended “by common consent.”

Alonso, a 33-year-old Spaniard, has driven for Ferrari since the start of the 2010 season. Eleven of his 32 career F1 grand prix wins came with Ferrari. He also made 44 podium appearances with the team but only two this year (second in Hungary and third in China). Alonso is presently fifth in the world championship standings.

“It’s a new chapter in my career,” Alonso said. “I felt it was the time to find new projects, new motivation. It was not an easy decision to make. I was in talks, even last year to be honest, and we waited for this year, for the new car, the new turbo era, etc.

“This year, I felt around summertime, September, it was time to move, and I made the decision. Only time will tell if it’s a good one or a bad one. But what is for sure is that it has been an amazing experience. So happy and so proud to have had those five years with an amazing team, an amazing brand like Ferrari.”

Alonso won his championships back-to-back with Renault from 2005-06.

In his first season with Ferrari in 2010, Alonso entered the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP with an eight-point lead, but Vettel’s victory in that race coupled with a seventh-place finish for Alonso allowed Vettel to win his first F1 title by just four points.

It’s widely rumored that Alonso will return to McLaren after he drove for that team in 2007. McLaren recently said that it will not announce its driver lineup for next year until December. Jenson Button, the 2009 world champion, and rookie Kevin Magnussen are its current driver lineup, but Button’s future plans are unclear after he has spent the past 15 years in F1.

“It’s been an interesting few months,” Button said. “When you’re in Formula One for so many years – 15 years – you have blinkers on in terms of anything else apart from Formula One. This is the best sport in the world, this is your life, this is everything. But when you are put in an uncomfortable situation obviously your eyes are opened to other possibilities.”

Categorized in: FIA