Sebastian Vettel should have taken a year off from Formula One in 2021, according to Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, instead of joining Aston Martin.
After being dropped by Ferrari last year, four-time Formula One world champion Vettel looked at a few options before deciding to join the rebranded Aston Martin team in 2021.
Vettel endured a difficult debut for Aston Martin in Bahrain. Following a collision with Esteban Ocon that resulted in a 10-second time penalty, the German driver finished 15th after being knocked out in Q1 and receiving a grid penalty.
Aston Martin battled to fight its way to the front of the midfield in Bahrain, as it had done all year, with the team believing that the new regulations had hurt its low-rake concept.
When asked about Vettel’s problems, Marko stated he had not changed his mind about the former Red Bull driver taking a year off before returning in 2022 under the new rules.
“I was of the opinion, I told you that too, that he should take a year off, sort himself out, ask himself what he wants,” Marko said in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com’s German language sister site Formel1.de.
“I believe that a lot is possible within Formula 1 next year. He didn’t do that. Now he sits in the Aston Martin, which of course suffers similar to the Mercedes [with low rake].
“They are very similar cars. And this race was far from being the one that could have brought relief.”
Despite freezing the technical standards for 2021 in an effort to conserve expenses in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the FIA has taken steps to lower downforce and slow the cars.
The main focus of the downforce reduction was on the car’s floors, which appears to have damaged low-rake car concepts more than high-rake car concepts.
The regulation change has also hampered Mercedes, with Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer estimating that it cost them one second per lap.
Although Marko agreed that the regulation changes had hurt Aston Martin, he felt this did not fully explain the team’s current performance gap.
“Let’s go back to the test where Mercedes had a very unstable rear end: Mercedes managed to stabilise that to a large extent,” Marko said. “Whereas with Aston Martin, as far as I have seen, they have not succeeded to that extent. They will eventually get better handling together as well, but apparently not to the level of Mercedes.
“And that one-and-a-half seconds [to Mercedes], I would say, is not just with Vettel, it’s partly in the car. At the moment, I think Aston Martin is in sixth or seventh place in the ranking. But with the Mercedes engine and with the possibilities they have now, they will surely move up.
“But that doesn’t change anything. The crash when [Vettel] drove into Ocon was incomprehensible.”
The uniforms of Formula One racing drivers are currently available at the following websites for a reasonable price:
