Otmar Szafnauer highlighted Sebastian Vettel’s prowess in integrating seamlessly with the team during his first season at Aston Martin.
In 2021, the four-time F1 Champion changed his jersey after 5 years with Ferrari, becoming the new teammate of Lance Stroll.
Aston Martin finished seventh in the constructors’ championship and Vettel finished second in Azerbaijan as his best result of the season, close to victory in Hungary before being disqualified due to a technical infringement.
After confirming the German also for the 2022 season, Szafnauer wanted to congratulate him for the work done.
“He was brilliant, he’s a one-piece man, works hard, has a great work ethic and leaves nothing to chance,” says the team principal.
“Engineers like to work with him, mechanics love him as a person. He’s just a genuine guy. And that’s fundamental in life.”
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR21
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Vettel also earned many compliments for his off-the-beaten-track commitment, raising public awareness on important environmental issues and highlighting social issues such as advocating LGBT + rights in Hungary.
Despite having known Vettel for over a decade, Szafnauer found it interesting to discover other traits he had heard of as well.
“Everyone who worked closely with him talked about it the same way I am doing it now. Even socially I could see what he was doing. He surprised me, but I was happy to see confirmation from his actions as well.” .
The head of the wall then spoke about the timing it took Seb to get carried away with his car.
“His greatest quality as a racing driver is simply working tirelessly to get faster and faster.”
“He also does it in the race. When he starts, he always looks at the other riders and at the trajectories to see if he can learn something, if he is able to go faster or save tires; in short, whatever needs to be done to grow. me is his greatest asset. “
Szafnauer finally indicated Hungary as the best race of the year for his boyfriend, in which he put Esteban Ocon under pressure throughout the GP.
“Even if the result didn’t matter, and through no fault of his own, I think he rode brilliantly in Budapest, trying to overtake Ocon.”
“He really wanted to win, but it’s very difficult to overtake in Budapest unless you have a huge advantage on the pace of the car, which we didn’t have.”
“If it had been a bit different situation, like doing a little quicker pit stop, we would have got out of the pits before Ocon and then I think he would have left him there.”
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