F1 News
Vettel finds it hard to connect: 'I miss speed'
- GPblog.com
After a colourless year at Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel switched to the newly formed Aston Martin. The ambition of the team and owner Lawrence Stroll is to become a championship winner in three to five years time. Where Racing Point was able to come along very well last year, Aston Martin is now embroiled in a battle in the midfield. Four times world champion Sebastian Vettel is not having an easy time of it either and is pointless in sixteenth place.
No points
The German has failed to score a single point in the last seven races where teammate Lance Stroll currently stands on five points. With many races to go everything is still open, but it is important that Vettel finds his feet. About this he says at Speedweek that there is progress.
Vettel: "It's good that I feel more comfortable in the car now, but to get into the top ten I miss speed. I think with that I would have had a better starting position than thirteenth, but not everything went smoothly," with which Vettel refers to situations in the race.
Vettel lost some time at the first tyre change and after the second the German got stuck behind his former team mate Kimi Raikkonen. This had such an effect on his tyres that he was unable to do much more in the race. The battle in the midfield is also fierce and it is important to continue to make enough progress.
Vettel goes on to say: "Everyone in midfield is continuously making progress, it's not easy to take bigger steps than your opponents. In Spain, Alpine surprised me, because I expected more from them in the race. This based on their good performance in practice."
Goes up and down
It's the battle in the midfield that is so interesting, because it goes in all directions. Because the midfield is so close together, the performance partly depends on the circuit it's raced on. In practice AlphaTauri was stronger than Aston Martin for example, where that team should be the better on paper.
Vettel: "There are many cars within a few tenths of each other and if you manage to do everything right, you move up quickly." In other words, if Aston Martin brings just that little bit extra in development, the team could suddenly find itself at the front of the midfield. The biggest problem according to Vettel at the moment is the lack of downforce compared to other cars, but with Monaco on the horizon he nuances that right.
"Monte Carlo has its own laws, so maybe we can get more out of it," Vettel said in conclusion.