Azerbaijan GP: Vettel Seeking ‘Better Rhythm’ With Aston Martin AMR21

Having opened his points account with Aston Martin in Monaco, Sebastian Vettel is feeling confident ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Unfortunately, his confidence failed to reflect in his performance on track, as he struggled to put in fast laps during free practice in Baku.

In FP1, the four-time world champion only managed to be 15th fastest. Nothing improved for the German driver in the second session of the day, as he still remained 15th on the timesheet.

Sebastian Vettel feels he still needs to get acclimated with the car

Speaking after the session, Vettel said, “Mostly I need to just get into a better rhythm earlier in the session, but I’m quite confident now having had another couple of laps. It’s a tricky track, you just need to have – one the confidence, and second sort of unleash yourself.”

“And I struggled a little bit with that. But it’s good that we kept the car between the walls and not in the wall. And a good amount of laps, we have a good understanding of the car as we tried something.

“So I would say we have done our homework and now I would say we need to focus on performance,” Vettel explained.

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The German feels trust in the car is the most important thing to tackle tricky Baku circuit

The sixth race of the season has brought the paddock to Baku – another street circuit on this season’s calendar. Even though there are certain differences in the way cars run in Monaco and in Azerbaijan, Vettel has faith in the Mercedes-powered car for the upcoming race.

As quoted by PlanetF1, Vettel said, “Yeah obviously the spec you’re running is very different. You’re running way less wing than in Monaco, and it will feel different due to the nature of track.

“I think ultimately you need to have the trust in the car and the confidence also to, on a track like this, make the difference.”

“You have the section around the old town that is very twisty, where you can make or lose a lot of time, so that will ultimately be the decisive factor,” Vettel concluded.

Let’s hope that the German can extract the most out of the Aston Martin car in the qualifying round on Saturday. It was certainly good to see the return of a cheerful Seb in Monaco, so let’s hope he’s here to stay!

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