Sebastian Vettel's heartfelt farewell message to Lando Norris

McLaren driver Lando Norris has revealed that Sebastian Vettel sent him a heartfelt farewell message when the two drivers swapped helmets last season. It is a common practice in F1 where drivers swap helmets as a gesture of respect to the other driver. It is similar to footballers exchanging their jerseys after a match. Lando Norris was one of the drivers that did that with Sebastian Vettel when he retired last season.

In a recent Twitch stream, Lando Norris revealed the message Sebastian Vettel wrote for him on the helmet. The message read:

"To Lando, crazy to think of our first meeting back then. So happy you’ve found your way, keep pushing the limits and keep your smiles – Seb.”

The German driver retired last season after a career that spanned almost 15 years. Speaking of Lando Norris, the McLaren driver is facing a tough season ahead as the car is just not up to the mark. The McLaren driver finished the first F1 race in Bahrain last in the race and had a forgetful evening.

The driver has, however, stayed upbeat and feels the team can turn the season around. Norris revealed that points were possible for the team if not for reliability issues and that Jeddah could deliver for the team on that front. He said:

"After they knew I was going to have to box every 10 laps, we knew we were going to be out of the race very quickly, but we still tried to stay in it for as long as possible. It's why we only retired with two laps to go."

He added:

"I think we've scored points in the past in Jeddah and there's no reason why we shouldn't have scored [in Bahrain]. We're optimistic and still believe we can score points with the car we have, which makes us even more optimistic for the later on part of the season."

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Sebastian Vettel rang Aston Martin to congratulate the team on the podium in Bahrain

In a recent interview with the PitStop podcast, Fernando Alonso's race engineer (formerly Sebastian Vettel's race engineer), Mikey Brown, revealed that the German had reached out to the team to congratulate them on the podium. He said:

"Seb got on well with everyone in the team, not just me. He sent me a message on Sunday after the race and was very happy for us. Getting this podium was not a product of luck in my humble opinion. It was a deserved podium. We were able to catch Mercedes and Ferrari and pass them on track. OK, Leclerc dropped out, but it was still a solid podium."

Vettel was replaced by Alonso at Aston Martin this season, and ironically, as soon as the German left, the car jumped a few pegs in terms of performance. Aston Martin is now a front-running team and it will be interesting to see how they grow in the post-Vettel era.