Sebastian Vettel disappointed with first season at Aston Martin

Sebastian Vettel has revealed that he was disappointed with the way his first season with Aston Martin turned out to be. The German said fighting at the back of the mid-field wasn’t what he had "signed up for."

Summarizing his experiences working with the Silverstone-based squad during an interview with Express, the four-time world champion said:

“I think we got hurt quite badly by the regulation changes as the team had a great car (in 2020) but not (in 2021), so we did what we could. It’s been a long year, lots of overtakes. Obviously, we had some qualifying sessions that didn’t go our way and had to make our way up in the race, sometimes more than other times.”

He then went on to add:

“I really enjoy working with the team, and I think it’s been a big change obviously. But no in terms of the results, obviously. The whole team and myself, we were hoping for more.”

The 2021 grid had three former world champions – Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, and Kimi Raikkonen – regularly battling each other, but for positions at the bottom end of the top 10. Nevertheless, the trio often managed to produce some of the best on-track actions during races and were close contenders for the newly introduced “Overtake award”.

While Raikkonen led the standings early on with most on-track overtakes, Vettel overtook the Finn in the standings during the later part of the season to clinch the award.

The German says that while he had “good fun” overtaking and moving up the grid during races, he had hoped for better qualifying performances to be able to fight for top 5 positions.

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Sebastian Vettel aiming for redemption after a disappointing end to his Ferrari career

Sebastian Vettel arrived in Maranello in 2015 as a four-time world champion hoping to emulate his mentor and idol Michael Schumacher by bringing championship glory back to the Scuderia. Six years later, Vettel’s dream of recreating his championship success with the Scuderia was still unfulfilled.

Despite challenging Mercedes in 2017 and 2018, and leading the championship early on in both seasons, minor mistakes on Vettel’s part prevented him from clinching a five-world championship.

Meanwhile, Maranello had a new poster boy in Charles Leclerc, who had shown in his first season with the team that he was capable of fighting for the championship. At the start of 2020, before the season had even begun, Sebastian Vettel was unceremoniously let go by Ferrari.

Vettel endured a difficult 2020 season, saddled with an uncompetitive car and struggling to even make it to Q3, while his teammate somehow produced podium-worthy performances on occasion. Vettel finished P13 in the standings with a mere 33 points, while his teammate Charles Leclerc scored three times as much to secure P8.

Amid speculations that he might say goodbye to F1 and retire, Vettel signed with Racing Point, about to be rebranded as Aston Martin. The team was one of the strongest in the midfield and had a reputation for regularly punching above their weight.

For both parties, the signing seemed like the right call, and there was much optimism about what the pairing might produce in 2021. Many expected Vettel to be a thorn in the side of the big teams, all the while producing performances that would make Ferrari reconsider their decision to sack him.

The floor regulations, however, neutered the team’s performance advantage. It relegated them into no man’s land between the mid-field teams, and the teams at the back of the field. Sebastian Vettel’s much-awaited redemption never arrived.