Sebastian Vettel says his six years at Ferrari were “a rollercoaster ride” as he heads into his final race with the team at the 2ꦑ020 Formula 1 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. 

The four-time world champion will end his Ferrari stint in Abu Dhabi this weekend ahead of a switch to the Aston Martin works team for 2021, after the Italian outfit told Vettel before the start of the season that it would not be renewing his deal and wꦓould instead sign Carlos Sainz to partner lead driver Charles Leclerc. 

Despite arriving at Ferrari with high hopes back in 2015, Vꦺettel has been unable to add to his four previous titles he achieved with Red Bull between 2010 and 2013, with Vettel and Ferrari notably beaten to the 2017 and 2018 world championship by Lewis Hami꧙lton and Mercedes. 

Vettel’s crash at꧟ the 2018 German Grand Pr🐷ix is often considered as being a decisive turning point in his career at Ferrari, however, the German does not feel that moment alone caused a downfall.  

“It was pretty much a rollercoaster ride over the years with a lot of things haಞppening,” Vettel said. “In terms of momentum in that year it wasn’t helping. 

“The mistake was a little mistake, with a huge outcome, a hugeไ penalty. There were definitely more things happening. 

“In the ’18 season, we had the passing of Mr Marchionne, the change in (team) leadership from Maurizio [Arriv꧒abene] to Mattia [Binotto]. So maybe the ’18 year was decisive for many things. 

“But I don’t know if you can break it down into only one tཧhing. In 2016, we parted ꦏways with James because of personal conflicts at the time.

“Looking🌺 back, there were a lot of things we should have and could have done better. The main thing is to make 🌳sure I learn from it, and I have grown from it.” 

Despite recording the third most amount of wins managed by any Ferrari driver with 14 victories across si༒x seasons, Vettel says describiཧng his tenure at Maranello as a “failure” is simply an honest summary.

“We had the ambition and target to win the championship and we didn’t,” Vettel☂ explained🏅. “I think it’s just an honest reflection. 

"I don’t think saying it out loud changes anything. We were up agai𒐪nst a very strong team-driver combination, one of the strongest we have seen so far, but our go🎶al was to be stronger than that and we failed. 

“There are reasons 𝐆for that. We had good and🌃 bad races. We got close and sometimes were far away.” 

While Vettel admitted that he did feel the pressure of being a Ferra꧂ri driver, he insisted it was not the reason for why things did not work out as h༺e had hoped. 

“It sounds nice and it adds a little bit of drama to🌳 everything,” he explained, "but I am definitely n🌜ot holding that as an excuse for coming short here and there. If you are ambitious to win and you have the target to win and succeed, you are the first one to realise that yourself. It isn’t depending on the pressure from outside.

“Overall, I feel much more comfortable or in a better place now than those years ago but at the time it hasn’t 🌼always been easy or strai💜ghtforward.”