Vettel: Alonso doesn't need my advice, not sure he's taking any

The four-time Formula 1 World Champion is retiring from the sport at the end of this season, and Alonso, a double World Champion will take his place at Aston Martin.

Vettel, speaking in an interview on the Aston Martin F1 Team official website, was asked if he had any advice for his successor.

"Fernando doesn't need any advice," he responded. "I'm not sure he's taking any advice, but he doesn't need it anyway. He's been around for so long and seen so much – he'll be fine."

The German picked out Alonso as one of two of his toughest rivals in F1, when asked to choose. He said: "Lewis [Hamilton], especially when I was at Ferrari.

"Lewis has always been right up there. Before that, it was probably Fernando [Alonso] when he was at Ferrari," he added as recently, in the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix, Vettel had a thrilling tussle with the Alonso.

Vettel was hired from Ferrari to spearhead the Aston Martin F1 project, but needless to say, the results have been underwhelming after two years with the British team.

Vettel reflected on his two years in Green; he said: "They have been challenging because the car wasn't as competitive as we hoped. This year, we wanted to make a significant improvement over last year. We failed. We're currently where we finished last year.

"I'm not pointing the finger and saying we did a bad job. I'm just being realistic. We had high hopes, but we fell short," he noted.

However, the 35-year-old driver does regret his decision to join Aston Martin, saying: "I don't think it was a useless two years, even though the results and points we scored weren't that useful or what we hoped for.

"I've loved working with the team – getting to know different people and different approaches. These two years have been very challenging because I wasn't familiar with running at the back of the field. It has been a new experience – tough at times – and I realized a lot.

And what did Vettel realize? "That you only see what's happening around you," he pointed out. "If you're at the front, you only see what's at the front. If you're at the back, you only see what's at the back – but you're always looking to the front because you want to be there.

"But when you're at the front, you don't look at the back because it doesn't impact you and you don't appreciate just how much work the teams at the back are also putting in. Just because you're not scoring big results, doesn't mean you're not working as hard.

"I'm very happy and proud to have worked alongside such a talented and dedicated group of people at Aston Martin F1.

"Even though it wasn't a lot of fun in terms the results, it's been a lot of fun working with everyone – helping the team on its journey and building for the future," the winner of 53 grands prix maintained.