Four-time Formula 1 champion and more recently budding environmental campaigner, Sebastian Vettel added another skill to his CV on Monday – amateur detective.
The German, 34, had a bag stolen from outside his hotel in Barcelona – and attempted to track down the thieves by riding a scooter through the city.
Vettel used tracking software in his smartphone to trace earbuds in the bag.
The Aston Martin driver found the earphones, but not the bag.
It seems the thieves discarded the earphones before making off with the bag and its contents to throw pursuers off the scent.
It is unclear whether they spotted a famous F1 driver on their trail before that happened.
An Aston Martin spokesperson said: “A bag belonging to Sebastian Vettel was stolen in Barcelona this morning. He tried to find it by using his iPhone to track his earphones which were in his bag, but when he located his earphones he found them abandoned and was therefore unable to locate his stolen bag.”
Vettel has reported the incident to the police.
It has not been a great few days for the 53-time grand prix winner.
Vettel finished Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix in 11th place, one position out of the points.
Aston Martin, who are into the second year of a five-year plan aimed at turning them into regular winners, have had the second slowest car on the grid since the start of the season.
They introduced a major car upgrade for the Barcelona race, but after showing initial promise it did not produce the upturn in performance the team had hoped.
In addition, Aston Martin found themselves embroiled in a row with championship leaders Red Bull, who accused them of copying their car and have launched an internal investigation to try to discover whether any of their intellectual property left the team and found its way to Aston Martin along with six employees poached in recent weeks.
