It was certainly not a Friday to remember that Sebastian Vettel experienced in Australia. The four-time world champion, in fact, had to wait until the third round of the season for the official debut in the championship thanks to the forced absence in Bahrain and Jeddah for the positivity to COVID, but already in the final minutes of FP1 he had to raise the flag white.
The power unit of his Aston Martin went KO and Vettel was forced to pull over the car on the track and intervene with a fire extinguisher loaned by a commissioner to prevent the principle of fire from spreading to other elements of the car.
The English team subsequently confirmed that Seb’s car would have to replace the engine and this prevented the German from being able to return to the track for the second free practice session.
“Obviously we had a problem,” said Vettel at the end of an FP2 experienced as a spectator in the Aston Martin pits. “Smoke came out of the car and I suddenly lost power. I stopped the car immediately and tried to do my best to limit the damage and move the car off the track as soon as possible ”.
Marshals assist Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR22, after technical problems with his car during FP1
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
“I tried to make sure the car didn’t suffer any further damage. The commissioners were very helpful. I asked for an Allen key to open part of the body and be able to cool the car components. A great job “.
For Vettel, however, Melbourne’s Friday got worse. In fact, once the session was over, the German returned to the pits driving a scooter loaned by a commissioner on the track and immediately ended up under investigation.
“When I made sure there was no longer any fire hazard I asked if I could go back to the pits. The session was now over and I asked if someone had come to take me to the pitlane and a boy arrived with a scooter who told me to get in the saddle ”.
“I asked him if I could ride alone because I would feel safer and he gave me the scooter and told me to go. Obviously I would have preferred to return to the pits with the car, I’m not here to ride a scooter ”.
While waiting to understand what the decision made by the race direction will be, Vettel admitted that the problem accused today did not help to regain the feeling with the car after a long absence.
“Unfortunately, the problem prevented us from taking part in FP2 too and this is certainly not ideal. I have been away from the cockpit for some time and also the Melbourne track has a new layout this year. It would have been nice to have had the opportunity to do more laps ”.
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