With Fernando Alonso the turning point came at Aston Martin this year. The Spaniard replaced Sebastian Vettel in the team for 2023, who ended his career last year. But while Vettel hardly had the opportunity to set any highlights and only has one podium finish in two years, Alonso started like a fire engine.
In the first eight races of the season, the Spaniard was on the podium six times and led Aston Martin to new heights. The racing team was even the second force behind Red Bull for a long time before their form lost a bit in the summer. And for Aston Martin, Vettel also played a big part in the success, even if he can no longer reap the benefits.
“He has his merits here,” nods team boss Mike Krack. Vettel not only contributed directly to the new car, but also brought a “benefit to our working methods” through his previous teams Red Bull and Ferrari.
“When he came to us, he came from two teams that had won championships,” says chief engineer Tom McCullough, praising that the German brought in “a lot of little details.” And Vettel was also a “tireless worker”.
With his experience, Vettel was also able to give a lot of feedback about the car. Of course, he sensed where his car’s weaknesses lay and was therefore able to give Aston Martin further direction. McCullough is a little sorry that he can no longer reap the benefits.
“We didn’t provide him with a good enough car in the two years he was here with us,” says the chief engineer. “It was only at the end of his second year that we made progress and I’m sorry for him that he didn’t really benefit from this year’s car.”
But something like this would happen more often over time. McCullough, for example, remembers his time at Williams, where Rubens Barrichello drove the last season of a long career in 2011 and had a bad car at his disposal: the racing team had only scored five points that season.
“He put in so much work and said what we have to do and what we should do,” McCullough said. “He worked on so many areas and the car for 2012, which he unfortunately didn’t drive in the end, was the result of the hard work he put in.”
Things went uphill again for Williams in 2012 with the FW34. The racing team scored 76 points and was even able to surprisingly win a race with Pastor Maldonado in Barcelona. Barrichello was already retired from Formula 1 – just like Sebastian Vettel is now.