Sebastian Vettel’s nightmare start in his career as Aston Martin in Bahrain last weekend did nothing to stop questions about his role in Formula 1, eight years after his last championship title.
The second half of the four-time world champion’s racing career was a disappointment after taking a Red Bull to racetracks to get the most out of the talented German.
Five barren years at Ferrari ended last winter without a race win for the whole season and he secured a high-profile move to Aston Martin for 2021 and beyond – a move that initially looked like a real coup for the new team.
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But Vettel’s display under the lights of Bahrain left a lot to be desired. After completing the fewest laps of a driver during the winter tests, he was the last to qualify for the race after being penalized for violating the yellow flag rules. He got into an uproar with Esteban Ocon from Alpine and ended the day 15 points behind team-mate Lance Stroll.
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Sebastian Vettel: “I have a special relationship with Mick Schumacher – I give him all the help I can.”
Not the start Aston had paid so well for. After the race, Vettel complained about the team’s strategy and his only consolation from the opening weekend was: “We had a good first lap”.
Check on Vettel
When a team like Aston Martin signs a former world champion who dominated the sport in the early 2010s and earned a higher wage at Ferrari than anyone else than Lewis Hamilton’s deal with Mercedes, it’s no surprise fans, commentators and former drivers are amazed if Aston spent wisely.
After all, they didn’t bring Vettel to the peak of his powers last winter – far from it. The German had collapsed so far from teammate Charles Leclerc that the Italian side struggled to justify not throwing all their weight behind the Monegas. It was no surprise they completed Vettel’s departure midway through last season.
The 33-year-old’s achievements last year led David Coulthard to consider before the start of this season whether there was any other motive for Aston to sign Vettel – one that would spawn a star in Stroll, as it did for Leclerc .
“I wonder if it’s part of the branding, but that it’s not necessarily about Aston Martin, but also about Lance Stroll,” Coulthard told the podcast On the Marbles. “If he beat Vettel, he could rightly say that he could be a future champion too.
“I’m not saying it is, and I’m not saying he isn’t, but there are still some doubts as to where he sits in the pecking order. If he does to Seb what Charles did to Seb, I don’t see how he can end the season. “
An interesting theory. Stroll’s father, Lawrence Stroll, owns the Aston Martin F1 team, and perhaps it would improve the 22-year-old’s future prospects to have his son as the lead driver in a partnership with a multiple F1 champion.
Will Aston Martin be made to sign Vettel? (Photo: AFP)
It’s easy to read deep into these kinds of narratives, but ex-Swiss F1 driver-turned-expert Marc Surer believes it’s a ridiculous suggestion to sign Vettel just to make the others look good.
“A businessman like Lawrence wouldn’t do that,” said Surer. “Vettel is someone who can develop the car, as he has proven at Red Bull. It’s about him making the car better, not about Stroll looking better.
“The walk is quick and he’s a talent. Although his father put a lot of money into his career. You have to admit the boy is quick. So it won’t be easy for Vettel to beat him, but [the idea] That you deliberately let Stroll hit Vettel is nonsense. “
Gerhard Berger, another former F1 driver, recently said on the Australian GP podcast about Vettel: “He never reacts very well under pressure. Remember Daniel [Ricciardo] came to Red Bull and was very strong, he put pressure on Sebastian.
“In a way, it just didn’t work out well for him. He starts making mistakes, then people start questioning him. Step by step there is more and more pressure and he doesn’t like pressure. “
So for the Germans there, not a big vote of confidence. But Aston Martin doesn’t seem too concerned for now. In fact, team boss Otmar Szafnauer was asked whether Vettel had to prove himself from the ground up after his miserable first appearance in the team.
“If you look at it from the pit wall and look at its lap times, its lap times weren’t that dissimilar to Lance’s, who’s been here for a while and knows the car well and finished in a relatively decent position and at times was medium and pretty competitive, just like Seb, ”said Szafnauer. “I have to talk to him. But it is far too early to say. “
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Sebastian Vettel shows little evidence that he can live up to Aston Martin’s raw ambitions
What role does Vettel play at Aston? While preparing for the 2021 F1 season, the German was thrilled to join a dynamic team at Aston Martin that clearly has ambitions to compete against the big boys. He was there to help the team take the next step up and possibly hold their own to compete with Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari. And you can not doubt that his experience will not be useful.
But with all its excitement came the insistence that success would not flourish this season. Only when the revision of F1 regulations begins next year will we see how close Aston Martin really is to fighting for race wins. At least that’s the promise.
“We are not yet an established big team in terms of results, but hopefully after this year we are not a small team anymore,” said Vettel I last week.
He also insisted that his career was not over and said, “I am convinced that I can be among the best, among the best. I’ve proven that, but that doesn’t guarantee you will be the best every day. “
What can we look forward to from the German this year? Maybe not much, bar experts tossing their opinions around. 2021 is as speculative a year for Aston Martin as it is for all of us.
Indeed, last Saturday was a bitter decline for everyone at Aston, a piece of reality in their first Grand Prix of how far they and their driver are currently at the top of the sport.
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