Why Vettel's Aston Martin F1 debut was so bad

sebastian vettel's first weekend as an aston martin formula one driver featured a q1 exit two penalties a silly collision five license points and a 15th place finish the downsides to vettel's aston debut are obviously not what the team expects from a four-time formula one world champion and star signing and it's far from what he wants as well we should be conscious of the fact that this was only vettel's first race and he came into it unprepared given his testing misfortunes so it can and should only get better from here but by vettel's own admission there's a lot he's uncomfortable with at the moment and he even says he didn't race that well with what he had so let's explore what made vettel's aston debut so bad and what he wants to see improved at least initially the main worry is that some of the negative aspects of vettel's weekend were the symptoms of so many of his late ferrari woes discomfort with the car's handling characteristics and clumsiness in combat vettel's greatest feats have come in cars with strong front ends allowing him to make up time in slow corners with an abrupt turn-in that's not undermined by any rear instability the handling characteristics of his new team's car on paper should have played into that even more so with the 2020 spec mercedes rear suspension added over the winter but instead the impact of the 2021 floor rule changes apparently left aston martin with the same rear instability worries suffered by mercedes and a weak front end the rake argument is potentially so significant and team bossopmar zafnow has been so keen to identify it as the cause of aston's woes that we'll be revisiting this in its own video but when vettel was asked after the race how close he was to feeling at 100 with the aston martin he replied probably less than half as there are so many things going on still that break the rhythm and make it quite difficult in terms of feeling the car and feeling what i need to do to drive fast as for the clash with esteban ocon it didn't help perceptions of vettel's race that his initial description of it was so at odds with the footage vettel suggested over the radio that ocon moved under breaking then later said he was sure okon was leaving space and then crossed back so vettel locked up before hitting him but it was vettel who did the moving around on track and it was clear who the stewards felt was at fault giving veto a 10 second time penalty he also received two points on his license taking his penalty points tally to five in one day and speaking of which the ocon clash and consequent spin were just a postscript on a day that had long since gone awry vettel got a curious penalty after qualifying when he was punished for not observing yellow flags that weren't even being shown when he arrived at nikita mazapin's spun hats because vettel was so close to the incident when it happened he only qualified 18th anyway getting knocked out of q1 was dropped to the back of the grid for not slowing down even once he passed mazepin's car as he would have received a warning on his dash that the sector was yellow the fia has a zero tolerance policy on slowing down if that happens even apparently if the incident's behind the driver so veto was hit with a five-place penalty and three license penalty points in the race itself punting on a one-stop strategy meant vettel did run as high as sixth but as his tires waned in the latter part of that stint he tumbled back down to 12th by the time he stopped and rejoined 17th he described it as a strategy that one stage in the race didn't feel that bad but wasn't ever likely to realistically bring any points given he started back in 20th given the discomfort he felt and the fundamental lack of mileage he has it should be no surprise that vettel's behaviour behind the wheel during pre-season testing and the opening race weekend has not exactly reflected classic vettel he's not all over the place but he simply doesn't look able to fully commit and extract the pace using his trademark style there's undoubtedly more to come if and when he's confident and at one with the car and it's clear that the limitations of the amr21 are playing a key role zaphnel was quick to defend vettel and point out that with testing truncated and in his case heavily interrupted as well it was still early days in his transition from the very different ferrari that support from the team and veto emphasizing that his relationship with aston martin is already really good and apologizing to the team for his weekend suggests the environment will be more conducive to mutual improvement efforts than vettel's late ferrari life was vettel also felt through qualifying in the race that he'd gathered the data needed to start making some headway he says there are a lot of things fighting him at the moment and he can't really focus on driving which goes a long way to showing how significant his early problems are the core issue to address appears to be a degree of setup confusion as changes being made aren't working the way they should be vettel's hope is that once aston gets on top of that rapid progress can be made let us know in the comments how you viewed vettel's debut and what you're expecting of him as he becomes more familiar with his new team and his new car and if you don't like the idea of vettel struggling but did find our video interesting enjoyable or insightful how about leaving us with a thumbs up and making sure you're subscribed to the race so you can join us again for future videos as well you

Channel: THE RACE

Views: 496,185

Rating: 4.9497647 out of 5

Keywords: F1, formula 1, formula one, sebastian vettel, f1 2021, aston martin, bahrain grand prix, AMR21, F1 news, F1 latest, F1 debut, F1 analysis, What happened to Vettel, Ferrari, The Race, the-race.com, @wearetherace, Scott Mitchell, vettel ocon

Id: cW5OlBzNVG8

Length: 5min 45sec (345 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/jvstinf]

I think Seb should’ve made some type of deal with Stroll to sign with Aston for ‘22, then took a year off to get his mind right.

[u/Mettiti]

Judging by the way Otmar is whining, it's gonna be an uphill season for AM

[u/ifokhorses69]

Let’s hope this was just 1 weekend

[u/RedHeadSteve]

Vettel had a bad weekend with a disappointing car, but at some point he started to drive like a world champion. And then he lost his flow and later on even did a terrible bad crash. But thats Vettel, when it goes right, he is brilliant, when it goes wrong, he makes a lot of mistakes.

[u/rand0m__pers0n]

It was shockingly terrible but it was only one race. Remember even Daniel had a shit start in Renault but he still bounced back. Only fair to give more time before jumping to conclusions

[u/supersemar_asli]

It's interesting how only Mazepin had a worse debut with his team. While nobody else was perfect, Tsunoda, Perez, Sainz, Ricciardo, and Alonso left the Grand Prix with some credit.

[u/Kreos111111]

Vettel still has it.You will see in the next races. The same for Alonso.

[u/LerimAnon]

Why is it so weird for him to fall off honestly? You see it in other pro sports all the time. Something changes and the guy goes from a repeat all star to suddenly struggling to find a starting spot on a team. Pitchers in baseball that go from Cy Young one year to bust. (Ok that's probably arm damage)... there are other examples I could provide with a little digging but my point is a driver can be both great during one era and struggle in another. And sometimes there just isnt one explanation for it.

Doesn't mean he was overrated when he was at his peak.

[u/alcachofeitos]

Because unlike the internet was hoping for, changing cars won't suddently make his obvious decline dissapear.

He was the same Vettel we had in 2020.