Will the bad Aston Martin series end tomorrow in qualifying at Le Castellet? In the past three races, the racing team never made it past Q1. That should definitely change on Saturday: “I hope we’re not already out in Q1,” says Sebastian Vettel. Friday at least gave reason to hope that this would succeed.
Because both Vettel and teammate Lance Stroll finished 13th and 15th, positions that would at least be enough to qualify for Q2. But Aston Martin wasn’t concerned with pure pace today: “Today it wasn’t about good and bad,” says Vettel.
Because the racing team drove with two different specifications on Friday in order to compare both with each other. Vettel’s conclusion is not particularly positive: “We are not fast at the moment and not fast enough,” he complains.
That would be a continuation of the form of the past few weeks. At least the German doesn’t want to commit to being better than in Spielberg two weeks ago. “I think we are similar to Austria in terms of our position in the field,” he says. “It’s not a huge leap now, but it wasn’t expected either.”
Update a “small setback”
Nonetheless, the Aston Martin upgrade remains a disappointment so far. At Silverstone, the racing team had an extensive package for the AMR22, but they never made it further than Q1.
“It’s almost a small setback,” team boss Mike Krack has to admit to ‘Sky’. Because before that in Monaco, Baku and Montreal they had seen quite good races, had made it into Q3 twice and had finished sixth in Azerbaijan. “And then Silverstone was a setback,” says Krack.
The package did bring something, “but not to the extent that we had hoped for”. However, the team has looked at the details and is currently trying to understand them. “We’re now trying to get this package to work the way we envisioned with small remedial measures. These are setbacks that you just have to put up with and analyze.”
Vettel hopes for an increase
Slow tracks like Monaco suit the car, but you have problems with high-speed passages at the moment. That was particularly evident at Silverstone, but also in Austria, where there are some fast corners in the last sector. “But we’re working on it,” assures Krack.
In France there are also few slow passages, but the principle of hope prevails at Aston Martin. “I hope that we can take a step forward tomorrow,” says Vettel. “We know that midfield is very, very tight. The gaps are very small. If we can improve that tomorrow, things will look a little better.”
Surviving Q1 is the main goal for him. “And then we’ll see that we can get as far up the field as possible,” he says, setting out the direction for qualifying.
“I think the race pace doesn’t look that bad. I think we can do a lot about driving, about the tyres, about dividing up, but of course it still depends on where we start the race from.” hag. “The rest will be revealed on Sunday. I think it will be a heated battle, but that was to be expected.”