Sebastian Vettel says he is missing around 100 laps in 2021 F1 pre-season testing due to new Aston Martin car problems, but he is not too worried and thinks there is no point in panicking.
After six years at Ferrari, Vettel moved to Aston Martin, which replaces the Racing Point team, and although they achieved their first victory last season and finished fourth in the constructors’ standings, in pre-season tests they were slowed down by reliability problems.
On the first day of testing, Vettel lost valuable time due to a still unknown problem that affected Lance Stroll too who drove in the afternoon and the problem with the gearbox on the second day limited Vettel to only ten laps.
On the third day of testing Vettel had a problem with the Mercedes turbocharger and in total he drove only 117 laps in three days, the least of all race drivers.
“I wish I had driven more laps, that’s the main thing,” said Vettel.
“We had a lot of work on the last day and I tried to use the time on the track which I think I did and it felt good. I learned a lot of things and now I have to remember them to move forward.”
“That’s really crucial. I just miss some laps. We had a lot of sets of tyres that we didn’t use just because we couldn’t drive.”
“Overall, I’m probably 100 laps short and something similar is true for Lance, we both didn’t get what we wanted.”
“But it’s not a big deal. It is what it is, we have to move on.”
Stroll drove 197 laps, 80 more than Vettel so Aston Martin completed 314 laps in three days – only Mercedes drove had less (304 laps).
“I’m not preoccupied with it, maybe because of age, maybe because of experience. Ten years ago, I would probably have panicked a little, but also if I panick would that help? Probably not.”
“The laps I drove were super useful so it could have been worse … it could have been better, but it could have been worse.”
“I think we need to stay calm, go step by step and move forward when it’s time for that.”
