Sebastian Vettel is unstoppable during his press rounds following the 2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola. It literally bubbles out of the four-time Formula 1 world champion, who had a sense of achievement for the first time this year: Vettel finished eighth in the race and thus scored the first points of the season for Aston Martin, and quite unexpectedly.
Vettel is correspondingly proud of this achievement and beams with joy: “Of course it’s like a win for us. Because we have to be honest: we’re not the fastest at the moment. I think we’re more at the other end of the field. But today it worked really good.”
And that’s an understatement. Because Vettel was in the top 10 right from the start in the Aston Martin AMR22, which was actually inferior, and even moved up from P9 to P7 on a wet track.
In the final phase he lost another position to Yuki Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri and Ferrari man Charles Leclerc slipped through again after his spin, which briefly threw him back behind Vettel. And so Vettel remained P8.
“Everything went well today”
Vettel is asked whether he enjoyed the race. He expressly affirms and says: “It’s only an eighth place and that’s not as great as a win. You have to be honest about that. I’ve ended up on the podium in many races and I’ve had worse races, so I’m satisfied. “
Aston Martin had a “really good race” and “without making any mistakes,” says Vettel. “Today everything went well. We even achieved more than is actually possible. Because the car doesn’t normally give that. But there was an opportunity and we took it.”
Lance Stroll also finished in the top 10 at the fourth Grand Prix of the year and contributed another championship point by finishing tenth. Like Vettel, the Canadian speaks of a “positive day” that the entire team can now “enjoy”.
Vettel admits: “It’s tough”
And according to Vettel, such points results were absolutely necessary for the atmosphere at Aston Martin. “It’s tough: you work your ass off and when you have a good package it’s easy to get good results. But how much work is put into it far back in the field I didn’t appreciate for many years. Simple, because I wasn’t affected.”
But now he realizes that the backfield is “worked exactly the same” as at the top. “It’s even harder because you don’t get candy and you don’t get a reward after a race. Try making your dog jump without holding out a cookie that he gets afterwards. It’s hard. That’s why it is [das Ergebnis] good for the team. I’m happy for the team,” said Vettel.
Because the strategy was also a team effort. Vettel had come in on lap 17 as the second driver after Daniel Ricciardo to switch from Intermediate to Medium and had thus set the trend for the remaining drivers. “Actually, I would have liked to change a lap or two earlier,” says Vettel. “Maybe we could have gone further up the field.”
Tactics work
But the tactic still worked: Vettel immediately drove competitive times and moved up one position due to the subsequent pit stops of the opponents. “In such conditions, you can make the difference if you get the tires up to temperature quickly,” explains Vettel.
After that it was all about “keeping the faster cars behind us,” said the ex-champion. He divided the medium tires well. “I wasn’t sure if it would work out, but it was enough.”
Vettel only came under serious pressure from behind in three laps because opponents were lurking in the DRS window: in two cases by Tsunoda and shortly afterwards by Leclerc, otherwise he usually had enough cushion on his pursuers.
And that after Vettel had been handed back from P9 to P13 in the dry sprint on Saturday. On Sunday in the Grand Prix, however, the Aston Martin proved to be significantly better.
“I don’t think much has changed overnight,” says Stroll. “Saturday was more difficult for us. Now we have to see why we were so good today. Maybe it was the weather, the lower temperatures and so on. That might have helped us a bit, like it did on Friday.”
Vettel wants to take momentum
But despite all the euphoria about the good performance in Imola, Vettel states: “The car is still difficult to drive, even on the straights. You can see it from the onboard recordings. You have to stay focused.” Addendum: “With our car you have to be wide awake on the straights, otherwise you can fly off.”
But in view of the P8 and P10 for Vettel and Stroll, that takes a back seat, at least for the moment. “We have to use this momentum,” says Vettel, “to go in the right direction, because the next races will be tough.”
Stroll adds: “I don’t see how our performance magically improves overnight so that we keep scoring points until the end of the season. We don’t have all the solutions yet, but we still have a lot of work to do to find even more pace.” Above all, Aston Martin has now also scored points and is no longer last in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship.