Sebastian Vettel has no hard feelings towards Ferrari, after parting ways with the Italian team he had joined in 2014. In six seasons he won 14 GPs, scored 53 podiums and came pretty close to winning the championship more than once, but never achieved his dream of celebrating a title with the team he rooted for while growing up.

However, the German driver will have only good memories of the years spent in Ferrari, as he stated in a recent interview: “I think racing for Ferrari is a unique experience and probably I'm very sure will remain with me and part of me for the rest of my life. I had a great time with Ferrari, I learned a lot, I met a lot of great people and I'm very grateful.”

Even though his departure from his former team had been unexpected at the time, with the driver informed shortly before the beginning of the 2020 season that his contract won't be renewed, Vettel is extremely focused on the upcoming season in the rebranded Aston Martin: “Generally, I haven't been stuck in the past and I was always happy to look forward and I am happy to look forward today and therefore happy to look forward to the challenge here”

Vettel comes from an extremely underwhelming year, scoring only one podium in Turkey and mostly being overqualified by his teammate Charles Leclerc, achieving his worst ever overall championship ranking with a thirteenth place and only 33 points. He said that he is "at peace” with his last season at Ferrari: “In all honesty, the whole year was a challenge, I've thought about this a lot at the time last year. I’m obviously not happy with how last year went in terms of performance, entirely my performance, but I think I accepted [it] and I don’t have any regrets.”

Aston Martin is an entirely different workplace, and will bring a different challenge for the German driver: a smaller team undergoing a thorough rebranding process, that ended the season on a high note scoring their first win in Sakir with Sergio Perez and their first pole position with Vettel's new teammate Lance Stroll in Turkey. A rather different environment than Ferrari, who had an underperforming car that led to one of the less successful seasons in the recent history of the team and was heavily criticised, putting a lot of pressure on their drivers. 

Vettel said that he doesn't really feel outside pressure, but that he's the one that pressures himself: “I don't think there's always a link between pressure and enjoyment,” he argued. “In fact, I put a lot of pressure and expectation on myself. So in that regard, nothing changes, the satisfaction you get when you cross the line and you've done a good job, you are your first and best judge. I don't expect it to change.

Four-times world champion, he has high expectations for his future with the British team, but knows that it won't be an easy or quick process: “And if you talk about pressure, I'd be very happy to have tons of pressure and be able to fight for the championship. That's ultimately what I would love to do. Obviously for us this year it's a different situation to be in and I think it's a great challenge. And we accept that. And we want to master the challenge and hopefully come out better than what we thought. The best way of doing that normally is to go step by step and focus on the things that are right in front of you, not getting disturbed by the big picture.”