F1: Aston Martin CEO Says Vettel Wants To Enjoy Racing Again

Otmar Szafnauer, the CEO of the Aston Martin F1 team has revealed that 4-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has come to the Silverstone based team to enjoy racing again after a tumultuous last few years at Ferrari where he failed to achieve his childhood dream of emulating his hero Michael Schumacher. 

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"In the beginning, before Seb came here, he said to me, 'Look, the reason I want to come is that I want to enjoy racing again.' That was his reason for coming.' If you ask him, which I often do, he is now at a point where he is enjoying racing again," said Szafnauer of Vettel who wanted to rekindle his love with motor racing. 

Szafnauer added that Vettel is now enjoying F1 again which has been reflected in some astonishingly good performances in the underwhelming AMR21, worthy of a former world champion. Statistically, Vettel is the third most successful driver in the history of the sport after Schumacher and Hamilton. 

Vettel managed an unlikely P2 at Baku and Hungary but his last P2 was disavowed because of a fuel related issue 

"He feels very comfortable. He's enjoying racing again, and that's good. That's exactly what he wanted," Szafnauer added. 

While the formerly Racing Point team came P4 in the constructor's championship in 2020, its rebrand as Aston Martin is off to a poor start as the team was held back with the regulation changes in 2021 which have held back low-rake cars like the Mercedes as well. 

But still, with the experience and skill of Vettel and his teammate Lance Stroll who is the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll, the ambition is to achieve P5. This will be a Herculean task as Vettel was disqualified from his P2 in Hungary and its prime rival Alpine managed to get a win and P4 in the same race.