‘You’re going to come back’, Hamilton tells retiring Vettel

Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday he expected his old rival Sebastian Vettel to make a Formula One comeback.

The 35-year-old four-times champion is bowing out of the sport after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday but Hamilton believes the 53-time grand prix race winner will find the lure of F1 hard to resist.

“I’m sitting here kind of accepting, yeah, this is your last race but you’ll be back,” said Hamilton, sharing a news conference with Fernando Alonso and Vettel at the Yas Marina track.

“Formula One has a way of sucking you back in and we’ve noticed that with so many other drivers so ...

“He’s come back [Alonso], you’re probably going to come back,” he added to the German, referring to 41-year-old Alonso who made his F1 return in 2021 and is moving from Alpine to Aston Martin as Vettel’s replacement next season.

Vettel, a father of three, announced his retirement ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July, saying his goals had changed and he wanted to focus on his family and other interests outside the sport.

Speaking to Formula One’s Beyond the Grid podcast released on Wednesday, Vettel, who left Ferrari for Aston Martin at the end of 2020, said the idea of retirement had been growing for some time and that he had initially resisted it.

“To try to understand, initially it grows inside you, and like I said, it was a bit confusing because I never had that before, the desire to maybe stay at home, not go on the plane, not looking forward to travel,” he said.

“Obviously, after the change from Ferrari to Aston Martin at that time it was the first time I really thought it might be the time to stop,” he added.

Formula One has seen some high-profile comebacks over the years.

Vettel’s boyhood idol Michael Schumacher came back to the sport aged 41 after a three-year retirement to lead Mercedes’ return to F1 as a works team.