"It's a shame" - Sebastian Vettel didn't always get a 'good enough car', admits Aston Martin

Aston Martin's performance director Tom McCullough regretted not giving their former driver Sebastian Vettel a competitive car that would have helped him achieve more success with the team.

During the launch of the team's 2023 car, the AMR23, McCullough spoke about Sebastian Vettel's time with the team, and the difficulties he faced, in particular. According to him, the German did perform strongly, but the cars he had to drive were just not good enough.

RacingNews365.com quoted McCullough as saying:

"With Sebastian, whenever we gave him a car capable of a strong result, you had that confidence he was going go out there and deliver, which he did for us."

"We didn't always quite give him a good enough car, [and] it's a shame that he won't be here to reap the reward of some of his hard work over the last two years."

After his stint with Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel moved to Aston Martin in the 2021 season, which was also the team's first season after being rebranded from Racing Point. Vettel did manage to pull the car to a second-place finish in the 2021 season in Azerbaijan but the 2022 season turned out to be largely disappointing.

The four-time world champion struggled with the car in most Q3 sessions during qualifying, and finishing in points during races was a hard challenge. Mid-season, he announced he would retire from the sport at the end of the 2022 season.

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McCullough regrets that Sebastian Vettel won't be able to drive a much better Aston Martin

McCullough sounded confident for the upcoming season of Formula 1 as he stated that he would regret the fact that Sebastian Vettel would not have a chance to 'reap the reward of some of his hard work.' He is referring to the new AMR23, which the team has talked about a lot.

Despite the fact that the team does not usually face financial issues, it was hard for them to be competitive in the previous season. However, the upcoming season is expected to bring them more success.

Fernando Alonso has replaced Vettel in the team, and with his experience, Aston Martin will be able to perform and develop much better in the upcoming season. There have been some changes in the regulations for this season and it will be interesting to see how the team copes with them.