F1 | Aston Martin, Szafnauer: “We regret not having given Vettel a competitive car”

Aston Martin is without a doubt the team that is struggling the most among those that should have fought for important placings. The Silverstone team, as reported by TP Otmar Szafnauer, admitted that just two pieces of development were not enough to improve a single-seater which last year - when it was still called Racing Point - had even won a GP with Sergio Perez in Sakhir. To date, however, the only podium placing is that of Sebastian Vettel in Baku, although there could have been two without the penalty inflicted on the German at the Hungaroring.

Speaking precisely of the four-time world champion, who embraced the Aston Martin project after the conclusion of the relationship with Ferrari, he hopes that the team, in view of 2022, can give him a competitive single-seater that will allow him to aspire to ambitious placings.

"With freezing and changes we could only reach a certain level – Szafnauer told Motorsport-Magazin.com – There are many things we could have tried without freezing, but instead we only had two tokens to exploit. We did our best to salvage something. But at the same time we had limited resources and time in the wind tunnel. We had to move to 2022, otherwise it would have affected our next season. Could we have done better? Yes. But we are realistic enough to know that we could not recover with our own resources. But this also applies to Mercedes in this first year with a budget cap".

Szafnauer, completing his discussion, added: “We set ourselves aggressive but achievable goals. And we are on the right track. Seb is doing a great job for us. We really enjoy working with him. It's really a shame that due to the circumstances we find ourselves in we weren't able to give him a competitive car to fight at the top. If we give him a better car, he will do his job. Lance also learned a lot from him. We have two great drivers and we can't wait to give them a new car next year".