DS Techeetah offers Vettel a Formula E test

Since the beginning of the 2022 Formula 1 season, many rumors have been swirling around the future of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. While the German driver’s contract with Aston Martin expires at the end of this season, there is no indication that “Baby Schumi” is ready to sign a new deal in the premier category of motorsport.

A few days ago, the latest news reported a possible replacement of Sebastian Vettel by Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin from 2023. Although these are only pure speculations, this news has still been relayed by the German and Swiss press.

At the beginning of the year, Vettel had indicated that he would make a decision about the future of his career based on the performance of his new generation car. It is clear that the Aston Martin AMR22 is far from the top positions on the grid and even struggles to make it into the Top 10. The planned upgrades for Barcelona must help remedy this situation in order to move up in the field.

Taking advantage of the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Heppenheim native, several disciplines of motorsport have tried to attract Vettel to their teams. On the occasion of the Miami Grand Prix, the Rahal family, owners of an IndyCar team, approached the German to offer him a test. Gerhard Berger, former F1 driver and current boss of the German touring car championship (DTM), also dreams of welcoming the former Red Bull and Ferrari driver, whom he had given his first opportunity in F1 with Toro Rosso.

The latest discipline to express its interest in the 34-year-old driver is Formula E. Thomas Chevaucher, director of DS Performance, has proposed a test for Vettel in a DS Techeetah team single-seater. Sebastian is very interested in the issues surrounding the environment and climate change, just like us in Formula E. We want to give him the opportunity to test a zero-emission car. But we do not know to what extent he is interested in pursuing his career in Formula E.

DS Automobiles, the French premium brand of the Stellantis group, has been involved in Formula E since 2015, initially through a partnership with Virgin Racing and then alongside the Chinese group Techeetah since 2018. With the latter, DS has won three driver titles (two for former F1 driver Jean-Eric Vergne and one for Antonio Felix Da Costa) and two constructor titles.

Finally, in a recent interview with the BBC, in which Vettel once again emphasized his commitment to environmental issues, the German also questioned whether it was still relevant for him to be driving race cars that consume the planet’s resources. Therefore, a potential move by the current fourteenth-ranked driver in the championship to Formula E would not be far-fetched.