Sebastian Vettel isn’t to blame for his poor run of form with Aston Martin, says Marc Surer who pins the blame on the teams’ history of mediocrity.
The former Formula 1 driver turned pundit believes that the “Pink Mercedes” of 2020 offered Vettel false hope for his 2021 prospects and failed to consider that before 2020, the team had only designed “mediocre cars”.
Speaking to Sport1, Surer said: “He certainly did everything right. The problem is the team’s history. They only ever built mediocre cars. And last year they suddenly had a top car. He thought it would jump up. But they had a 100 percent car Mercedes copy.”
The regulation changes for 2021, although minimal, have forced teams to adapt their cars this season.
For Aston Martin, the team have had to develop something by themselves and “made the car worse”, Surer added. “He probably thought ‘I can get further because Mercedes are somehow involved.'”
Vettel isn’t the only driver to have changed teams over the winter to be struggling at this stage. Sergio Perez hasn’t yet clicked at Red Bull and Carlos Sainz still has a little bit of work to do before he is 100% comfortable in his Ferrari.
Surer commented that each of these drivers need to “find” themselves first before they can co-operate with their team engineers. “This interaction takes longer than I thought”.
Looking ahead to Monaco, Surer is optimistic of Vettel’s chances: “Monaco is a race in itself. The car has to fit. Vettel said he feels a little more comfortable in the car. That could be a good sign for Monaco.
“You will come out of the deep. The future looks bright. You have hired new people. The level will rise in this team.”