Sebastian Vettel 'working tirelessly' to turn things around at Aston Martin after poor start

Big things were expected from the Aston Martin F1 team in 2021, since The team formerly known as Racing Point had a stellar 2020. They also managed to sign four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel when he was released from Ferrari. However, the German has had a tough time of things thus far; he finished 15th in both Bahrain and Imola. However, he has shown glimpses of his best in the first two Formula 1 races. That has prompted Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer believes he will be back to his best soon.

“I think he’s fine,” said Szafnauer, who was handed a 10-second stop/go penalty at Imola.

“He has very high expectations of himself and he will work tirelessly to get better and move up that learning curve. But he’s not beating himself up, so to speak.

Always looking to the future. ? pic.twitter.com/KwK5hHHM5l

— Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) April 24, 2021

“He’ll just take that bit of frustration and he’ll be even more determined to get up to speed quickly. It wasn’t his fault at all that we originally burned his rear brake ducts and cake tins.

“And after starting in the pit lane and the penalty, he had no chance really.”

‘Adjusting to new car takes time’

Szafnauer believes that getting to grips with a new car can take time. He cited the example of Sergio Perez, who left the team to join Red Bull, as someone facing similar issues.

“If the car philosophy is completely different then it does take time. Having talked to Checo [Perez] too, he’s gone to Red Bull which has a different philosophy to ours and he says the same.

“That it’s just going to take seat time to be able to get to those fine, fine margins of getting the most out of the car. It’s just that simple. The more seat time, the better.

“I guess my biggest regret is that we weren’t as reliable as we should have been in the winter. Seb lost a significant amount of his day and a half. So had we had more testing and Seb in the car more, I think he would be in a different place on the learning curve.

“Sebastian Vettel was never really in contention [at Imola], but after he put the slicks on, he was doing some really quick lap times if you watched them. So I think he’s getting on top of the car and he’ll just get better and better.”