Sebastian Vettel said he is getting more comfortable in his Aston Martin despite failing to make the cut for the top 10 in qualifying for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
While his team mate Lance Stroll took the final place in Q3, Vettel fell short by three-tenths of a second. He believes most of that time loss was down to him.“I lost one tenth in the straight because I was quite alone in the end,” he said. “But I lost also a little bit to myself, so maybe it was not the best lap, which obviously you need to make it to Q3.”
Having joined Aston Martin from Ferrari, Vettel said he isn’t completely at one with his car yet, but can feel improvements in the second race of the season.
“It’s coming,” said Vettel in response to a question from RaceFans. “Obviously, I’m not a very patient guy, so I don’t want to wait, but it is getting a lot better.
“On a track like this in particular you need the ultimate confidence to extract everything and I’m not yet there, but it’s only the second race. So I guess I have to be a bit more patient.”
“The car is quite different to what I was used to in the past,” he explained. “There’s a couple of things that nowadays with tyres and how you set up the cars et cetera can make quite a big difference. So that’s why I think it’s taking me a bit longer than normal.
“Obviously, in all fairness, as well if it’s for the ultimate tenths that you’re fighting in the midfield then you see the consequence straight away as well.”
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2021 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
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ColdFly (@)
17th April 2021, 16:28
I’d say the gap to your teammate is typically all due to the driver :p
Mark in Florida
17th April 2021, 16:50
Close the curtain Seb that’s a wrap…You’re just making yourself look bad twaddling around like that. Stroll is looking like the team leader while Seb needs a walker.
Hal
17th April 2021, 16:52
Exactly, proves that Stroll is a 7 time WC in the making ! Daddy Strollminator was right all along :D
RocketTankski
17th April 2021, 17:07
It’s not Seb’s fault. It’s the unfair rules. The FIA forced low rake cars to be slow. Especially Vettel’s car.
JES
17th April 2021, 22:11
Nice troll attempt.
BasCB (@bascb)
17th April 2021, 17:18
Yeah, I do think Vettel looked far more hooked up than he was in Bahrain. Or really the whole last year.
There was only a bit in it to get into Q3, and at least he is still at a solid grid spot, I do hope he can race a bit tomorrow, and show whether he has found his mojo racing with guys.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
17th April 2021, 17:57
OK, VET is on the low, no doubt, but to me is some proof that Stroll is not that bad as many said. I never was on the side who said he’s pretty bad, not even F1 material, therefore I never expected to see VET dominate him (at least 0.5sec or so faster every Quali)… unlike others. In most cases the difference between tier1 and tier2 racers is not the downright speed, but the consistency, lack of mistakes, better wheel to wheel racing, tyre management etc etc.
sumedh
17th April 2021, 18:59
That is true. Stroll is definitely better than most pay drivers. His wet weather skills have been proof of the same.
Vettel unfortunately right now it more tier-2 than tier-1. Worse is, his outright speed also seems to have gone now.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
18th April 2021, 3:24
Yes, it’s odd, he’s always been mistake prone, even in his red bull days, and he won titles because those cars allowed him to run off into the distance, remember a recent race where he performed well despite not having a dominant car: canada 2019, that seemed like red bull days vettel, but as soon as there’s pressure and battles it gets bad.
He was generally fast enough until 2019, in 2020 he started losing speed too.
joe jopling (@jop452)
17th April 2021, 20:38
Seb just needs a good race result and his confidence will come back….give him a little more time…he is not dead and buried yet….and I predict in 3 races he will be in front of Stroll in qualifying
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
17th April 2021, 21:32
A step in the right direction. Vettel’s results are vastly affected by confidence. Once he gets his confidence, the results will come.
magon4 (@magon4)
18th April 2021, 8:27
Looking at the weekend, and the new team mates:
Checo had an iffy weekend with a so far happy end, but even he says he doesnt feel it yet.
Alonso, Sainz, Vettel, Danny Ric (who improved but is still pretty far behind Lando) – that shows this is not an exclusive Seb problem. I was rewatching DtS, and just a few years ago they had 8 days of testing, now it was three. This will need some time.
Even Danny Ric admitted in 2019 how difficult it was to adapt to the Renault, and he had 8 days.
So, after four races we look at the situation again.