Part of Stroll’s strategy to raise the team’s profile was to recruit Vettel, even though the 33-year-old German and Perez seemingly went in opposite directions last season. While Perez couldn’t go wrong with his first F1 win at the 191st attempt when he took the checkered flag at the Sakhir Grand Prix, one of the highlights of the season, Vettel’s stock collapsed after weathering the worst campaign of his career. It remains to be seen if it was a one-off season for Vettel, who obviously couldn’t motivate himself after learning about Ferrari before a bike upset last year that his sixth season with Scuderia would be his last while he also struggled with a car that was far from his taste.
In Aston Martin, Vettel will build on solid foundations with a team from fourth place in the constructors’ championship – that would have been third had it not been for the highly controversial 15-point deduction for copying mania – and one who is ready to throw another reassuring arm around him to make sure he’s doing his best.
“I don’t think Sebastian has forgotten how to drive a racing car quickly,” said Szafnauer. “He knows how to win world championships.
“I’m sure we’ll learn a lot from him, which is why we hired him. We’ll give him the support structure he needs to be comfortable on the team and to play at the level we know he is is able to do so.
“I think along with this support structure, by showing him love, so to speak, what he can bring to the team can lift us all up.
“We have a great driver with fabulous car control, but young, in Lance [Stroll], not as experienced as Seb, and then we have a four-time world champion with the experience that Seb brings and I think that combination will lift the whole team. “
At the moment, Aston Martin and Sebastian Vettel seem like a match made in heaven that offers so much potential but apparently still has so much to prove.
Images courtesy of Motorsport Images and Ferrari.
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