Sebastian Vettel has refused to hold Mercedes responsible for Aston Martin’s reliability problems during Formula 1 tests in Bahrain.
The four-time world champion’s preparations to familiarize himself with his new team ahead of the upcoming campaign were hampered by a variety of reliability issues that limited his running.
Vettel finally finished the three-day test at the end of the mile cards after completing just 117 laps in total when Aston Martin encountered a transmission failure, suspected turbo problem and electrical problem during the three days.
However, the German emphasized that it was more important to find the cause of the problems in time for the first race in two weeks than to show the guilt.
“I totally disagree,” Vettel replied when asked if the fault for Aston Martin’s problems was with Mercedes. “It’s in our car.
“It’s true that the engine is the Mercedes engine and the gearbox is supplied by Mercedes, but it’s still built into our car, so at some point a lot of components get mixed up.
On the subject of matching items
“I don’t know at the moment, to be honest, where the cause of the problem was this afternoon, where exactly it was, so we have to get to the bottom of this.
“Ultimately it will be more on one side or the other, but it doesn’t matter. It needs to be fixed and addressed.
“We’re going to work together because whatever you buy from the outside, you still have to put our car in our car and make it work.”
On the subject of matching items
Vettel admitted the setbacks had left him on his heel and around 100 laps before the race he had hoped would be over in the new season. But unlike a decade ago, the highly experienced 33-year-old said he was not going into “panic” mode.
“I’m not too busy,” he explained. “Maybe it’s age, maybe it’s experience, but 10 years ago I’d finally panic.
“But then again, if I panicked now, would it help? Probably not. We’re just trying to do our stuff and use the time we have now.
“We still have a lot going on, and for me the laps were great, super useful [on the last day].
“So it could be worse. It could be better, but it could be worse. I think the point is to keep calm, do one thing at a time, and move forward when it’s time.”
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