Home Vettel meets his mettle: Aston Martin blows the cover on its F1 fighter

Vettel meets his mettle: Aston Martin blows the cover on its F1 fighter

Sebastian Vettel said he believes he can win another Formula One world title as his new Aston Martin team unveiled their car on Wednesday 3 March ahead of a return to the grid.

Vettel, a four-time world champion for Red Bull, endured a miserable end to his six campaigns with Ferrari, finishing 13th in the 2020 standings.

Aston Martin next F1 chapter for Sebastian Vettel

The 33-year-old German is ready to move on to the next chapter of his career with Aston Martin — the historic British name returning to Formula One for the first time since 1960.

“It is not a secret that last year I wasn’t at my happiest,” Vettel said at Aston Martin’s launch, where the rebranded Racing Point team revealed its British racing green livery.

An undated handout photograph released by Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team on 3 March 2021 shows the team’s AMR21, their new car for the 2021 Formula One season, at their facility in Leighton Buzzard, north of London.
Image: Dominic FRASER / AFP / ASTON MARTIN

“I know it wasn’t to my standards, that I was below myself, but I am very much at peace with it. I think I have another world championship in me… I am not too old and I still have a long time in me.”

Vettel, whose career tally of 53 grand prix wins has been surpassed only by fellow multiple world champions Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, was positive about his move.

“Things are different here than Ferrari because the team is growing,” he said.

“It is not about the fancy looks and the fancy chairs in the office but the work done behind the scenes and from what I have seen the people are very talented.”

Backed by Lance Stroll’s billionaire father

Team principal Otmar Szafnauer has cautioned that it will be three to five years before Aston Martin are in a position to challenge for world championships.

But Vettel said a team backed by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, whose son Lance is Aston Martin’s other driver, may get there sooner after F1 chiefs introduced budget caps to ensure greater competition.

“Formula One is changing and maybe you don’t need those three to five years anymore,” Vettel said.

“Maybe it will shrink and the hope is that everyone will be closer to the top and not just finish on the podium because the guys at the front retired or crashed.”

The new Formula One season starts in Bahrain on March 28.

Licensed to thrill

With Aston Martin the car brand most closely associated with James Bond, the launch also included a video message from Daniel Craig wishing the team well in the new season.

— By © Agence France-Presse

ALSO READ: Watch: 60 years on, Aston Martin poised to shake and stir F1 racing grid



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