Bernie Ecclestone believes Aston Martin is the right place for the “old Sebastian Vettel” to return

Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone wants Sebastian Vettel to thrive and return to his old self again. The Briton believes Aston Martin is the right environment for the four-time F1 world champion to do so, after a difficult few years with Ferrari.

Ecclestone says that one of the key reasons for Vettel’s failure to recreate his success with Red Bull at the Scuderia is the lack of support at the latter. Speaking of the German’s struggles at Maranello in recent years, and his move to Aston Martin in an interview with f1-insider.com, Ecclestone said:

“The best thing he can do, and the best thing anyone can do, is forget about his years at Ferrari.”

“What a lot of people might not know is that he’s a very sensitive guy. He loves to be loved. That didn’t happen to him at Ferrari.”

“It’s not like he was disappointed with life or didn’t want to be the old Vettel. It was simply that he needed to get back into a suitable team. I’m sure he’s now in the right team, where they care about him. There he has the prerequisite to show the old Vettel again. And I believe he will succeed there.”

After dominating F1 for four years with Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel moved to Ferrari in 2015 with hopes of emulating his close friend and mentor Michael Schumacher.

While their partnership initially showed promise, it ultimately failed to yield any championship success. Vettel started both 2017 and 2018 with strong performances and led Lewis Hamilton during the first half of those seasons.

Intense development from Mercedes, combined with crucial mistakes from Vettel, such as Germany 2018, however, meant that Ferrari’s championship challenge often trailed off by mid-season.

Sebastian Vettel also had to suffer ignominy when newcomer Charles Leclerc outpaced the four-time F1 world champion in the same car. After two difficult seasons in 2019 and 2020, Ferrari decided to replace him with Carlos Sainz Jr. for the 2021 season.

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Outgoing Aston Martin team principal praises “brilliant” Sebastian Vettel for his integrity and work ethic

Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer has praised Sebastian Vettel for his work ethic and hard work.

Speaking to crash.net, Szafnauer said:

“He’s been brilliant. He’s such a man of integrity, he works hard, great work ethic leaves no stone unturned.”

“The engineers like working with him, the mechanics love him as a person. He’s just a genuine guy. And that goes a long way in life.”

After a regulation change for the 2021 season badly affected Aston Martin’s performances, Sebastian Vettel’s hopes of fighting at the top of midfield this season didn’t materialize.

The veteran F1 driver, however, used his vast experience to exploit opportunities throughout the season to score two top-three finishes for the Silverstone-based team.

Speaking of his disqualification in Hungary, Szafnauer said:

“Although the result didn’t count, through no fault of his own, I thought he drove a brilliant race in Budapest, and tried and tried and tried to overtake Ocon.”

“He wanted the win badly. It’s just so difficult to overtake in Budapest unless you have a massive, massive car pace advantage, which we didn’t have.”

Otmar Szafnauer says that Sebastian Vettel would have easily “gone off into the distance” had Aston Martin managed to give him a quick pit stop. Stuck behind Esteban Ocon's Alpine, Vettel eventually finished P2 to score the team’s second podium of the season. The result, however, was later taken away after FIA delegates couldn’t find enough fuel in the car for testing purposes.