Vettel: There was an opportunity and we took it

At Imola, Aston Martin F1 finally managed to break through a string of failed performances and earn points, with both drivers finishing in the top ten. However, Sebastian Vettel made it clear that the team was more likely to jump over their heads than achieve a real boost in the car’s efficiency.

He took 8th place, his partner Lance Stroll – 10th, although the AMR22 should still be considered one of the slowest cars in the championship and in this regard “competes” with the Williams FW44.

The Aston Martin car is subject to strong pitching at high speeds and the team has yet to work hard to somehow cope with this phenomenon. For the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, however, she has prepared some minor novelties, including an attempt to upgrade the underbody to make it stiffer.

But according to Vettel, no novelties helped to earn points: “I think we just took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves. Some rivals made mistakes, but we avoided this and had a very good race, worked well with rubber and switched to slicks in time.

We acted clearly and correctly, enabling us to achieve more than expected. Normally this machine doesn’t allow you to fight for points, but we had an opportunity and we took it.

Team leader Mike Krak agrees with the four-time world champion’s comments: “I don’t think our car has gotten much faster than it was. Maybe we added a little bit, but if you remember how the sprint went, we had to actively defend. There was no chance of finishing in the top ten.

On Sunday it became clear that we had to take full advantage of the difficult circumstances. If the race had been run on dry surfaces, we would have had a very difficult time. But Friday practice also took place on a drying track, and then we did really well – both the riders and the team as a whole.

So we were determined to give it another try before the Grand Prix. And if we manage to work without mistakes, and the opponents will make them, then we have a chance to earn points.”

It cannot be said that misses were completely avoided, but they did not lead to serious consequences, for example at the end of the segment on intermediate tires, Vettel did not keep the car on the track, but simply passed the relegation zone in the Acque Minerale turn and turned back to battle.

But Sebastian and his race engineer estimated the changes in the track’s condition very correctly and were among the first to decide to switch to slicks. This made it possible to get ahead of Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen and even threaten Valtteri Bottas at one point.

But Aston Martin’s car is slower than the Finn’s Alfa Romeo, especially on dry surfaces, although it was fast enough to outpace the Haas. Vettel managed to hold back Magnussen’s attack for most of the second part of the distance, and when the Dane was ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, he was even able to extend the lead over this pair.

Admittedly, ten laps from the finish, Tsunoda caught up with him and went ahead of him, but Sebastian was able to earn points for eighth place. However, Vettel is already inclined to see this result as a kind of victory: “I feel that I can act better than many in such conditions, because I warm up the rubber quickly.

It is important to emphasize that there were faster cars behind us, but we worked expertly with rubber until the end of the race. I wasn’t sure if we could earn points, but we did. We ran really well this race.”