In fact, the signs are bad. Sebastian Vettel would like to have a racing car that he can use to fight for the podium and win again. Aston Martin cannot offer this at the moment. But neither do many others. “At the moment you are only guaranteed victory with the top three teams,” Vettel also knows. These are Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. And the doors of all three are tight.

The midfield is extremely narrow, but is above and further away than in 2021. Vettel is also surprised. Indeed, everyone thought the new rules would push the field together. But miracles always take a little longer in Formula 1. “We will probably only see the effects of the budget cap in a few years,” Vettel believes.

Step on the edge with more opportunities

Nevertheless, the fire is still burning in the four-time world champion. Even though Aston Martin is currently treading the water and after good performances in Monte Carlo, Baku and Montreal have recently fallen to the end of the midfield.

Vettel explains it this way: “Where we looked good, there were a lot of slow corners. There all the cars are on the same level, and you can still make things up as a driver. In fast corners, we have Still lacking downforce.”

So was the B version of the Aston Martin AMR22 a flop? Vettel defended the effort of his engineers: “It was initially a step sideways, but it leaves us with many more options in the future. We are bouncing off the controls and the working window has gotten a bit bigger.” The first version had a lot of downforce on paper. But we couldn’t use it because we couldn’t drive as low as the package asked for. Mercedes had similar problems.”

Hope for new engineers

Aston Martin would love to start the third season with the 35-year-old German. Because he helps the team with his experience. Sports director Andy Stevenson says, “Sebastian is incredibly committed when talking to engineers. He always has new ideas and perspectives and that drives us forward. He’s incredibly valuable to us. And he’s someone like that.” Sounds like someone who wants to continue driving.” “Everyone on the team wants him to stay.”

Team boss Mike Krack admitted earlier at the Canadian GP: “We’ve always said we’d like to stay with him if he decides to do so. We’re in constant communication about this. We have to ourselves. There is no need to set any time limit. Of course we can’t procrastinate for long, but he is aware of that too.”

Vettel officially confirmed at the press conference Paul Ricard: “I am talking to the team. There is a clear intention to continue.” If you look at Vettel’s contract extension history, he only made a commitment after the summer break. “It will take a while,” he says, barring too high expectations this time.

Aston Martin may be watered down at the moment, but Vettel also knows that the 2023 car will feature the first-hunted engineer Aston Martin from Red Bull and Mercedes. Your lockdown is now over.

The team hopes that the inputs from the newcomers will take the car further. One of the teammates warned: “Imagine, we take a step forward next year and Seb is sitting on the couch at home. He definitely doesn’t want that.”