Vettel is tired of midfield
The German makes no secret that his future at Aston Martin depends on being able to land him a competitive car there. “I want to win,” emphasizes the four-time world champion again in an interview with ‘AFP’.
“It’s no secret that we wanted to be up front as a team – but now we’re behind,” he admits, explaining: “When I started I didn’t care. But I’m not here to finish outside the top 10 . I want to win.”
He is “spoiled” in this regard because he knows what it feels like to win races and titles. “I haven’t made a decision about my future yet,” emphasizes Vettel, whose contract expires at the end of the year.
According to these statements, further years with a midfield team seem rather unlikely.
Tsunoda puzzles over weak performance
The Japanese started from P9 on Sunday in Miami. In the race, however, he only went backwards and didn’t get any points. He has no explanation for this. “I don’t know,” he shrugs.
He had “no pace and no grip” from the start. “It was the complete opposite of the situation in Imola,” he muses. There, in seventh place, he still had the best AlphaTauri result of the season so far.
Instead, it was again similar to what it was in Melbourne before. The tires had graining from the second lap. “We have to analyze what the problem was,” explains Tsunoda.
Miami was the first race in 2022 in which AlphaTauri failed to score points.
Villeneuve: Sainz not at Leclerc’s level
The 1997 world champion believes that the world championship fight will be decided between Verstappen and Leclerc this year. “[Beide Teams] have a leader who was not determined by the team – but on the track,” said Villeneuve.
In his column on ‘Formule1.nl’ he writes: “Verstappen and Leclerc have become number 1 naturally. […] Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez, let’s call them ‘sidekicks’, can win races.”
“But they are not at the level of the respective number 1 drivers,” he is certain.
Mercedes: What happened to the safety car?
We remember: Hamilton was not happy on Sunday that the team wanted to let him decide whether to pit during the safety car period. There was a small argument over the radio.
“You don’t have all the information on the track,” explains Hamilton himself, adding: “So when you have the responsibility to make a decision, it feels like you’re gambling, and I don’t like that.”
Now Mike Elliott has also commented on this. Hamilton was asked for his opinion “because there was no right or wrong answer.” Had Hamilton pitted, he would have lost the position to Russell.
If he hadn’t been picked up, which was ultimately the case, he would have stayed ahead of Russell but would have had the older tyres. “Sometimes the driver feels better in the car,” Elliott said.
But in the end there was simply no satisfactory way out.
9 years ago today…
… Fernando Alonso won the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix for Ferrari. Hard to believe: it was actually the two-time world champion’s last Formula 1 victory to date!
This series of photos comes to mind for me. Because if Alonso were to win another Grand Prix at some point, he would make it to first place – by far …
Photo gallery: Top 10: The longest time between race wins
Brundle: New Mercedes remains a “mystery”
Toto Wolff emphasized at the weekend that Mercedes would not give up the current concept. “We believe that our concept has the potential to be up front,” the team boss said in Miami.
At the same time, Miami was the weekend that Mercedes had probably been the most worried about so far, because after Russell’s best time on Friday they crashed again completely.
“And the team just didn’t know why that was,” Brundle said. As is well known, nothing has changed.
Good TV ratings in the US
According to ESPN, an average of 2.6 million people watched the Miami GP on US television on Sunday. That is the largest number of viewers that a broadcaster has ever achieved in a Formula 1 race that was broadcast live.
A complete success for the premier class. But to put the numbers in perspective: the Super Bowl is regularly watched by more than 100 million fans in the USA. This year it was 101 million.
So Formula 1 achieved just over 2.5 percent of it.
Mercedes: Why did it go down the drain after Friday?
The Silver Arrows continue to ask themselves this question. “That’s a really good question,” muses Chief Technology Officer Mike Elliott, explaining that Mercedes has never been as competitive this year as it was in Miami on Friday.
“We made some changes between Friday and Saturday,” he reports. However, these were very small. “However, the conditions also changed,” he recalls.
“We need to look at all the data,” explains Elliott. Because currently you have no idea why Russell drove the best time on Friday – but then even failed in Q2 on Saturday.
Mercedes: Why did Miami go down the drain after Friday?
Mercedes’ Mike Elliott Answers the Most Important Questions About the Miami GP! More Formula 1 videos
Berger: Vettel has passed its zenith
The DTM boss and longtime Vettel companion explains that Vettel’s current situation is not only due to the car. “One thing is clear: he’s not as good as ever. But that’s normal,” the Austrian told ‘Sport1’.
He explains: “In the first part of your racing career, you always take big risks, constantly pushing the car to the extreme limit. Then you build up experience and lose a bit of aggressiveness. That then balances out.”
“You’re at your peak at that point. I was between 28 and 30. I had the best mix of aggressiveness, willingness to take risks and experience. But then the curve goes down again,” reports Berger.
“That’s why Sebastian is certainly not at his peak anymore,” he says, but also emphasizes: “But he has so much experience that he can still drive up front if it suits.”
Hope for Barcelona?
Exciting in this context: The Aston Martin is to get a major update in Spain. Many even speak of a B version of the AMR22. Vettel’s hope for the new parts is there – but not too big.
Speaking to ‘Sky’, the four-time world champion explains: “We’re getting a big update package in Barcelona. We know it’s not a huge step for performance. We’ll see, but I’m looking forward to the updates.”
Should these not ignite as hoped, that would probably raise further big question marks with regard to Vettel’s future.
With tasty in the Thursday
Hello and welcome to a new edition of our Formula 1 live ticker. The week is already coming to an end, but of course the world of the premier class does not stand still on the days without racing. That’s why we want to do it again today and tomorrow here in the ticker!
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