Formula 1: Crazy Sebastian Vettel rumor emerges about 2021

A crazy rumor involving Sebastian Vettel has the four-time Formula 1 champion out at Ferrari and linked to a McLaren seat for the 2021 season.

It’s no secret that a key focal point of the 2021 Formula 1 Silly Season, which promises to be a crazy one with only a handful of drivers under contract for the 2021 season and the new rules and regulations, including a budget cap that does not include driver salaries, slated to go into effect, is Ferrari’s second seat.

Charles Leclerc is under contract with the Scuderia through at least the 2022 season, but Sebastian Vettel’s contract is slated to expire after what is set to be his sixth consecutive season driving for the team in 2020.

Several drivers have already been linked to replace the 32-year-old German, most notably six-time Lewis Hamilton, who is set to enter his eighth season at Mercedes, also a contract year.

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Should anybody replace Vettel at Ferrari alongside Leclerc for the 2021 season, there is a belief that Vettel would retire, as he has alluded to the idea that Formula 1 isn’t what it once was during his early years and his recent form suggests that he is no longer capable of competing at a championship level over the course of an entire season.

However, now another interesting rumor has emerged, and this rumor links Vettel to McLaren for the 2021 season. He has reportedly already been in contact with McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl about making the move.

This rumor is quite crazy on many levels. First of all, McLaren’s current driver lineup of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris is arguably the lineup with the most camaraderie in all of Formula 1, even though it has been together for only one year (which actually makes it tied for the third longest tenured lineup in Formula 1 right now).

Both drivers proved in their first season as teammates that they can get the most out of their cars, with Sainz taking the “best of the rest” title and Norris just a few points, points he easily should have scored in Belgium before what would have been a career-high fifth place finish turned to an 11th place finish on the final lap with a mechanical failure, from finishing just one position behind him in that category.

Norris recently signed a multi-year contract extension with McLaren, and Sainz’s contract is believed to have an option beyond the 2020 season as well. Couple that with the fact that Norris is only 20 years old while Sainz is only 25, and how could Vettel possible end up unseating one of these two drivers in 2021?

Additionally, despite his recent struggles, Vettel still wants to be able to win. He wouldn’t be third on the all-time wins list otherwise.

McLaren did just have their best season since 2012 with their fourth place finish in the constructor standings as the “best of the rest” team, but they are still not on the level of being able to compete with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.

Maybe that will change in 2021 with the new regulations and with their new engine deal with Mercedes, but they’ll still presumably enter the year significantly behind those three teams, provided they all still compete.

Even if the Woking-based team are competitive enough for Vettel to want to drive there, which is naturally a possibility if he loses his top-tier ride with Ferrari and isn’t left with many other options but wishes to remain in Formula 1, it would make no sense for Norris or Sainz to leave on their own nor to be released the team.

Suffice it to say that Sebastian Vettel in papaya orange and blue in the 2021 Formula 1 season is not a likelihood by any stretch of the imagination, but with all the Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari rumors going around, I guess it only makes sense to speculate about the other active multi-time champion’s future, especially since a Ferrari departure does seem quite likely.