Rocky Start for Vettel
In a recent interview with RaceFans, Mark Webber commented on Sebastian Vettel and his recent divorce from Ferrari. Last season, Ferrari announced that they were dropping the four-time world champion in favour of Carlos Sainz.
Vettel, instead of retiring, moved to Aston Martin, where he had a rocky start to the season opener in Bahrain. He finished 15th, with an extra 5 penalty points added to his super-license. During qualifying, Vettel received a grid penalty and three penalty points for failing to slow for yellow flags. During the race, he received a time penalty of 10 seconds and 2 penalty points, for causing a collision with Ocon.
Webber believes Vettel is ‘his toughest critic’ and that ‘he’s going to be really had on himself.’
“It’s easy for this stuff to snowball out of control. And that’s what his mission has to be now, to make sure this doesn’t snowball out of control, that he can get back on the horse and have sort of some feeling with this car.”
He continues on to say that Vettel is ‘an extremely old dog in terms of new tricks’ and that is going to be ‘something which, again, a lot of it is on Seb’s watch.’ He also adds that ‘it’s a lot down to Vettel.’
“Ferrari must have been quite challenging for him”
The new Drive to Survive season 3 showed little parts of tension between the staff at Ferrari and Vettel, however Webber believes that this only showed a fraction of the environment that Vettel had to face.
Mark Webber, who was Sebastian Vettel’s teammate from 2009 to 2013, was close to signing with the Ferrari F1 team at the end of 2013. He doesn’t, however, regret not going there.
“I don’t regret not going there,” he said. “I think the passion, that’s the biggest thing, it’s that Italian fans, somehow it’s a drug for you, that you would love to go and represent them and drive [for] them.”
“To have success with them, it must be like no other team in the world. It’s like an old, stately home. Red Bull have had a great success, but that’s a ‘new build’.”
Your Take – Can Vettel Pick Himself Back Up?
Do you think the four-time world champion has a place at Aston Martin, or perhaps he’s just delaying his retirement? We always want to see your opinion on the topics we write about! Either use the form below to comment, or take a look at our contact page!
