Sebastian Vettel is preparing for his second season at Aston Martin. But the four-time champion admitted his first with the Silverstone team wasn’t ideal when it came to results as he hopes for more this year.
Vettel joined Aston Martin from Ferrari for the 2021 season. And while he was on the podium at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and finished P2 at the Hungarian Grand Prix – before being disqualified for a fuel irregularity – last year Vettel scored just 43 points overall and finished 12th overall.
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When asked if he had “signed” with Aston Martin for last season, Vettel replied, “Yes and no. I think the team is great; I really enjoy working with the team and I think it was obviously a big change.
“But not in terms of results, of course. The whole team and I, we had hoped for more. I think the changes in the regulations hurt us quite a bit because the team had a great car [in 2020] but not [in 2021], so we did what we could,” he said.
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As a consolation, the German racer also received the Crypto.com Overtake Award in 2021 and added: “It was a long year, many overtaking manoeuvres. Of course we had some qualifying sessions that didn’t go to our liking and had to work our way up the race, sometimes more [successfully] than at other times.
“I enjoyed it. The midfield was very tight and obviously struggling with Fernando [Alonso] is special. It’s been quite a while since we fought and some memories came back and the last time we really fought was for the championship. It was a lot of fun, but of course next year we want to be a little further up the grid and fight for… bigger trophies.
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Aston Martin will unveil their 2022 challenger on February 10th and hope to work their way back up to the top of midfield and beyond – with the long-term goal of fighting for titles, with owner Lawrence Stroll investing heavily in his team’s infrastructure has.
“There have been some ups and downs but obviously high hopes [2022] with the new car, new regulations and the growing and hopefully getting stronger team,” added Vettel.
The team, formerly known as Racing Point and Force India, announced the departure of longtime team boss Otmar Szafnauer in January. Ex-BMW Motorsport Director Mike Krack was called in as a replacement – Krack had worked with Vettel at BMW Sauber at the time. Deutsch was the team’s test driver.
