The 2022 season will be full of news and above all unknowns for the entire starting grid of Formula 1. But before facing the new year, Sebastian Vettel takes a look at his 2021, which saw him debut with Aston Martin after six seasons in Ferrari. The four-time world champion embarked on a new adventure managing to get on the podium on two occasions, closing the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in second position and picking up another second place in Hungary, the latter later removed due to a disqualification for a fuel irregularity.
However, looking at the standings, the balance of the season is not so positive and the German has closed 2021 with a 12th position in the general, just 43 points. As he prepares to start his second year with Aston Martin, he makes an assessment of what last season was like, acknowledging that he would certainly have expected more: “I think the team is fantastic, I have a lot of fun working with the team and I think it was a big change. But in terms of results I expected more of course. The whole team, myself included, were hoping for something more. I think we have been conditioned enough by the regulation changes, the team had a great car in 2020, but not in 2021, so we did what we could ”.
Despite a season definitely below expectations and in some ways disappointing, Sebastian Vettel was “consoled” by winning the Crypto.com Overtake Award, which is the award for the highest number of overtakes during the 22 races held in 2021: “It is It was a long season, with a lot of overtaking. Obviously, we had some qualifying that didn’t go as we would have liked and we had to recover in the race, some times more than others ”.
In spite of the difficulties, the German driver reveals that he had fun during the year especially in the mid-pack fight. There the competition is certainly high and he remembers with pleasure the battles he waged with Alonso, an old enemy with whom he fought for the world titles in the past: “I had fun, the fight in the middle of the group is very tight, obviously fighting with Fernando Alonso is special. . It had been a while since we had fought and many memories have returned, the last time we had a real fight we were fighting for the championship. It was fun, but of course we hope to advance on the grid next year and fight for bigger trophies. There have been several ups and downs, but clearly we have a lot of hope for 2022 with the new car, the new regulation and with the team that is growing and getting stronger ”.
Aston Martin will unveil the new team (with top changes) and the new car on 10 February. So far it is the only team to have revealed the date on which the 2022 car will be unveiled. To see it in action, however, we will have to wait until the end of the month, when all the teams will fly to Barcelona for the first winter tests, scheduled for 23 to 25 February.
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR21
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
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