Sebastian Vettel believes he still has time to see out Aston Martin's vision of fighting for the Formula 1 championship in five years.
The German is now the fourth-oldest driver on the current grid at 33, and retirement wasn't a word thrown around flippantly after Ferrari announced he would be leaving at the end of 2020.
Now beginning a new challenge at Aston Martin, and with the examples of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen who are still going two decades after debuting in F1, however, Vettel is sure his time won't be up before his new team can challenge at the front.
“I think so. I am not too old yet and I don’t think it’s related to age anyway," he told Auto Hebdo.
“It’s more a question of the car and the team, F1 has always been like that as far back as I can remember.
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"In the last few years, you had to be in a Mercedes to win the title. I’m not telling you anything new.
“But to win, you have to be in it for the long haul. If we take Mercedes as an example, we can see that they have laid the foundations for their dominance from 2011-2012 and with the introduction of the new hybrid powertrains, they have taken a long lead.
“F1 is going through a phase of change. Everyone hopes that the gaps will close, you don’t want to be on the podium only because the leaders have given up.
“We’ll see how F1 evolves in the coming years, but as far as age goes, I think I’ve got a lot of years left in me.”
Since being announced at Aston Martin, the team has regularly dismissed concerns over whether Vettel is still at his peak.
But owner Lawrence Stroll also notes how important Sebastian is to the Silverstone-based squad achieving their ambitions.
“Our ultimate goal is to be world champions,” the Canadian said via Motorsport Week.
“Sebastian is clearly a great driver. He is a four-time world champion, so he brings that knowledge to help lift the team to a new level of understanding of how you need to act and perform to do so."
After a tough end to his six years at Ferrari too, Stroll also thinks Vettel comes to Aston Martin with extra motivation.
“Having your contract terminated before the season even starts isn’t the best way of motivating somebody to get them focused on the job at hand," he added.
“This guy has got something to prove, and he’s raring to go.”
