Berlin, Germany- Four-time former World Champion, Sebastian Vettel, has announced he will retire from Formula One at the end of the season.

It will bring to an end a career in which so far the 35-year-old German has won 53 races and driven for BMW-Sauber, Toro Rosso, Red Bull, Ferrari and Aston Martin.

“I have had the privilege of working with many fantastic people in Formula One over the past 15 years. There are far too many to mention and thank.

Over the past two years, I have been an Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team driver and although our results have not been as good as we had hoped, it is very clear to me everything is being put together that a team needs to race at the very highest level for years to come.

I have really enjoyed working with such a great bunch of people. Everyone, Lawrence (Stroll), Lance (Stroll), Martin (Whitmarsh), Mike (Krack), the senior managers, the engineers, the mechanics and the rest of the team is ambitious, capable, expert, committed and friendly, and I wish them all well.

Moreso, I hope the work I did last year and I am continuing to do this year will be helpful in the development of a team that will win in the future, and I will work as hard as I can between now and the end of the year with that goal in mind, giving as always my best in the last 10 races.

The decision to retire has been a difficult one for me to take and I have spent a lot of time thinking about it.

At the end of the year, I want to take some more time to reflect on what I will focus on next. It’s very clear to me that being a father, I want to spend more time with my family, but, today is not about saying goodbye. Rather, it is about saying thank you to everyone, not least to the fans, without whose passionate support Formula One could not exist,” said Vettel in a statement issued by his Aston Martin team.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton has said that Vettel was one of the few people that made Formula One not feel lonely.

“I kind of knew that it was coming, as there had been hints, but the realization of it is another thing, and I would just say naturally, my first feeling is it’s sad to see that he is stopping, and then I have not had a lot of time to think about all the journey that we have gone through together, but when I talk about the journey that I have felt I have experienced in this sport, and kind of often feeling that it’s been relatively lonely, I would say he is one of the few people that made it not feel lonely.

He stood by me through a lot of things. I always remember 2007, the press conference in Magny-Cours, and him being very, very outspoken in the driver’s briefing, and I knew then that he was going to be a powerful figure in the sport, but then seeing his success, and then seeing that he puts others before himself and he’s been so brave in speaking out and standing for what he believes in.

We talk about legends in our sport. I don’t really love that name, or that title, to be honest. I think he’s one of the greatest people that we have seen in the sport, and we need more like him. I am sad because I will have lost an ally inside the actual sport on the grid, but I know that outside, he will be doing great things, and I hope that we will always remain friends. I hope that there will be other things that we get to do together outside,” said Hamilton.