Vettel: Aston Martin giving up on F1 2021 would be “wasted opportunity”

Aston Martin has endured a torrid start to the season, scoring just five points in the opening four races.

Vettel has yet to get off the mark in 2021, while Lance Stroll has scored all of the team’s points. 

Aston Martin appears to be the team to be hardest hit by the floor changes for 2021, ending last season as arguably the third-fastest team when it was still called Racing Point.

Vettel says it would be wrong to completely switch to next year because there’s still a lot he and the team can learn.

“I don’t think, not just now, but generally in life that shortcuts will help you a big deal,” Vettel said last weekend in Barcelona.

“So I think like I said earlier there’s so many things we can still learn and we can still have a better understanding as a team so it would be a wasted opportunity now, the question is obviously how you measure the opportunity, whether you measure it podiums, points or wins or a different currency, so as a team we can still improve on a lot of small things but at the end it is small things that make a difference and lead to perfection. 

“Even if we are not racing in positions we would love to, it is still time well spent.”

Despite Aston Martin’s tricky start to the season, Vettel also revealed the spirit inside the team is still strong.

“Well I think it is not a secret we expected to be stronger this year, obviously for reasons we are not, so it is what it is,” Vettel added.

“I think yet we can grow as a team, there’s lots of small things that we are looking at we can improve, I think the whole group is still very excited, the spirit is great so I’m happy, despite the performance not being where we all wanted to be but we have accepted that and we’ll try and do the best from there.”