GREEN MEANS GO
REMEMBER THE BUZZ about “a secret meeting” between Sebastian Vettel and Otmar Szafnauer last summer? A four-time world champion, left a free agent by Ferrari, was spotted in a parking lot at the Silverstone circuit jumping in the car belonging to the boss of the soon-to-be Aston Martin team, just a few hundred meters away from its factory.
In a peak period of a Formula 1 silly season, it was seen as a clear sign: these two are edging closer to making a deal.
It did eventually happen. Vettel moved to Aston Martin for 2021. But on that particular occasion it was just a chance meeting between two old friends. Seb didn’t hop into Otmar’s car to sign a contract.
In fact, these two had already signed one by that time. Well, sort of…
“I met Sebastian, gosh, I can’t remember when…” Szafnauer exhales, trying to reconstruct the circumstances of his first meaningful meeting with Sebastian in a chat with GP Racing. “[It happened] when he was in between contracts with BMW and Red Bull. Long, long time ago.”
It was in 2007, in the restaurant of a small hotel, Hüllen, in a place called Barweiler, around eight kilometres away from the Nürburgring. Vice President of Honda Racing Developments Szafnauer met young BMW Sauber test driver Vettel and a couple of other Germans – BMW hospitality chef Joschi Walch, who became a long-time friend of Sebastian and his family, and Michael Schmidt, a veritable guru of the German motorsport media. They had dinner together and shared some drinks. It was around the time Vettel was deciding whether to leave BMW and accept Red Bull’s offer to drive for Toro
