Vettel buys Williams FW14B, Hamilton abandons French lessons

Ferrari’s four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has purchased a historic car of the Williams F1 team, the FW14B that powered Nigel Mansell to his sole World Championship title back in 1992.

It has long been known that Sebastian Vettel is not only a racing driver, but a true fan of motorsport. The German loves historic machines and has a private collection of cars and motorbikes. He fell in love with cars at a young age with investing all his money into his first bike, a Cagiva 125 Mito, aged 16.

The successful German said previously: "I have a weakness for old cars. You open the hood and you know what’s going on. I am also fascinated by the form and sophistication that already prevailed then. With the funds, which were limited from today’s perspective, one has already considered very clever things."

Vettel has now added another fantastic piece to his collection by purchasing Nigel Mansell’s FW14B which helped the former Ferrari driver clinch his sole Formula 1 world title with Williams in 1992. The FW14B carries the famous red 5 on its nose, the number that Vettel chose when drivers were allowed to select their own starting numbers.

"The red 5 was very interesting for me. That car is an absolute icon,” said the great German.

While Vettel spent some of his fortune on the Williams FW14B, Lewis Hamilton admitted in Belgium last weekend that he wanted to take French lessons during the shutdown period. The Briton wanted to make use of his extra time and was adamant to learn French in an extremely quick way, condensing a week’s lesson into one single day.

Asked whether he abandoned his latest adventure, he said: "Yes, it is true, I gave it a try, but it didn’t last very long," the Briton is quoted as saying by Belgium’s RTBF broadcaster.

"I’m crazy - I wanted to do the lessons for a week in one day. After six days, I had done the equivalent of six weeks of lessons, but it was too intense, I clearly did too much and I quit."