Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Sebastian Vettel's living room on Sunday afternoon.
The Bahrain Grand Prix was the curtain-raiser of the 2023 Formula 1 season, but of course it was also the first race since Vettel's retirement from the sport. At the age of 35, he decided last year that he no longer wanted to commit to the demanding F1 schedule.
Instead, he is spending more time with his beloved wife and children while he decides what his next steps will be. So last Sunday, as the lights went out in Bahrain, he was presumably sat there on his sofa – a pilsner in one hand and the other arm embracing his doting family – as surprised as the rest of us as Fernando Alonso stuck his Aston Martin on the podium.
