Sebastian Vettel admits “it can’t get any worse” for him or Aston Martin after a miserable weekend at the Australian Grand Prix.
Returning to Formula 1 after missing the first two races with Covid-19, the German spent the least time on track of any driver across the three days.
On Friday, Vettel suffered an engine issue in Practice 1 before crashing on both Saturday and Sunday at Albert Park, ending his race with a strange spin into the barrier exiting Turn 4.
“Obviously, I tried to get the best out of the car that I can and with hindsight maybe I was pushing too hard,” he conceded.
LAP 24/58 ⚠️ SAFETY CAR ⚠️
Vettel has hit the wall and stopped on track
A tough weekend for the Aston Martin driver ?#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/JEBFJZGcVz
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 10, 2022
“It was more challenging not to have the running, obviously partly because we lost time with the car, and then with the Saturday morning incidents so doesn’t help, but I’m sure it will get better.
“It can’t get any worse,” he concluded.
With Alex Albon scoring a point for Williams, Aston Martin is now the only team yet to get off the mark in 2022.
And team boss Mike Krack refused to blame Vettel for what occurred on track.
“Fortunately, I’m happy that Seb is fine after all these incidents, but I think, if someone like him, a four-time World Champion, has the issues that he was having this weekend – this is not down to not driving, because he has driven the car,” he suggested.
“We need to really look at what the car is providing him, what feedback he gets from the car. Him being off so much as he has been this weekend is not normal.”
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Krack also believes it would be too simplistic to blame Vettel’s lack of track time before Melbourne for his problems.
“I do not think that this is related to having two missed races,” he said.
“I mean, he has been a multiple-time winner in Melbourne. He knows where he is here, he has had some tests with the car.
“I think it [would] be really easy to say he was not there for two weekends. [With] a driver of that class, we really need to check what tools we are giving him.”