Farewell to a flawed genius

For those who live within the world of Formula 1, the retirement of Sebastian Vettel was not perhaps the biggest surprise (although the borderline farcical chain of events that followed involving Alpine, Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri undoubtedly was).

But with an ocean of pixelated ink covering that saga already washing over the internet, I’m going to stick to writing about the quadruple World Champion for now.

With 53 race victories and four World Championships, Sebastian should rank among the all-time greats in the sport. His ability to rattle off pole positions and dominant race victories from the middle of 2009 until the end of 2013 was seriously impressive; if he’d stopped then, his legacy would look somewhat different to how it may appear today.

That era of blown-diffuser Red Bulls with tremendous stability on entry to medium and low-speed corners suited him to perfection, and it is entirely to his credit that he took that advantage and exploited it to the maximum.