Aston Martin is seeing signs it will get the best out of Sebastian Vettel after noting the immediate contribution he has made to the team.
Vettel joins Aston Martin off the back of a dismal final year at Ferrari, where the German scored just 33 points and finished 13th in the drivers’ championship. Vettel was comfortably beaten by teammate Charles Leclerc but Aston Martin technical director Andy Green says the early indicators are that he will be back to his best in a new environment.
“We haven’t really got into the where his head was at previously — we’re a team looking forward — but all I can say is he appears incredibly relaxed,” Green said. “He has integrated into the team very quickly, his contribution started immediately, and I think we’re going to get the best out of Seb, I really do, he’s at the top of his career, he’s there, so I think if we can’t extract the best out of Seb it’s our fault not his. I’m confident we can get Seb in the right place.”
Green says Sergio Perez had a more specific driving style that needed to be catered for than Vettel does, amid questions about whether the team will be able to tailor the car to suit the four-time world champion.
“Seb, yes he does have his own personal driving style, but that’s no different to the driving style we’ve seen from other drivers, and I’d say not as extreme as the driver he’s replacing, who had a very extreme driving style that was very difficult to get right at all tracks. It shone on certain tracks and not on others.
“I think Seb’s style is a lot less extreme, and we have the tools and the capability to tune the car to suit him for sure. We’ve already started working on that — we’ve been working on that on the simulator for the last month and he seems very happy with the direction that we’ve taken, so no problems there.”