Ex-F1 racer Timo Glock believes it will be a challenge for Sebastian Vettel to make anything of the struggling Aston Martin package.
The ambition is there from the team, which since its rebranding ahead of the 2021 season has been undergoing a major recruitment drive, with a new management team in place, while a new campus and wind tunnel are under construction.
Former McLaren Racing CEO Martin Whitmarsh is now serving in that role at Aston Martin, while BMW’s former motorsport boss Mike Krack replaced Otmar Szafnauer as team principal.
However, for a team that wants to be title contenders within the next five years, the on-track results have not been demonstrating the required progress towards this ambition.
Aerodynamic regulation changes hampered the team in 2021, resulting in a slump to P7 in the Constructors’ Championship, but the 2022 season and its overhauled regulations were seen as the opportunity to start fresh and improve up the order.
But, there was little sign of that happening in Bahrain, with both Aston Martins suffering Q1 elimination and failing to score a point.
Four-time World Champion Vettel did not compete in the season-opener due to returning a positive Covid test, but once he is back in the AMR22, Glock is fearful that his compatriot can not achieve much with it.
“The disappointment of the weekend was Aston Martin,” he wrote in his Sky Sport column after the Bahrain Grand Prix.
“It will be difficult for Sebastian Vettel to make something out of this package in the future. It needs a lot of work around the new team boss Mike Krack.”
It was another German racer who took Vettel’s place in Bahrain, that being Nico Hülkenberg.
While he was unable to make any progress in the race, he did outqualify team-mate Lance Stroll by a quarter of a second, leading Glock to praise his performance.
“I have to take my hat off to Nico Hülkenberg’s performance,” said Glock.
“It was outstanding of him to come to Bahrain at such short notice, without having sat in this car before and then to drive such a qualifying session where he took three tenths off regular driver Lance Stroll.”
Bahrain marked the start of Stroll’s second season in Aston Martin colours, but his qualifying performance did not go down well in the German press.
Even though Stroll was comfortably the better-performing Aston Martin driver on race day, six-time Formula 1 race winner Ralf Schumacher suggested that Stroll considered moving on to a different hobby.
Lance Stroll is the son of team owner Lawrence, and Glock felt that Hülkenberg sent a message about the pitfalls of a pay driver when it comes to ability.
“That is a very clear exclamation mark that Hülkenberg has sent in the direction of the pay drivers,” said Glock.
“There are qualitative differences after all.”
Hülkenberg could yet receive another outing in Saudi Arabia, with Vettel not yet confirmed as returning for the event.
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