Sebastian Vettel is hoping to fight for a chance to score points at the 2022 Australian GP but doesn’t expect any “miracles” from his car. Speaking to the media after a miserable Saturday qualifying put him on the back foot for the race, the Aston Martin driver said:
“In terms of pace, it’s not going to be a miracle that we are going to pull off but we will see I mean, I didn’t have any running really on my side. So, I don’t know where we will stand but we will try everything we can do to fight the cars around us.”
Sebastian Vettel missed out on the first two rounds of the 2022 season following a positive test for COVID-19 in Bahrain. His first Grand Prix weekend of the season in Melbourne has been less than ideal so far.
The German barely had any on-track running throughout the practice sessions owing to reliability issues and a crash in FP3. He was unable to get himself out of Q1 with his sole run in the dying moments of the session and was set for a ninth-row start.
With Vettel’s teammate Lance Stroll also crashing in FP3, as well as tangling with Williams’ Nicholas Latifi in Qualifying, Aston Martin has raked up an expensive repair bill. With both cars at the rear of the grid, the team’s chances for a decent finish on Sunday look slim.
Sebastian Vettel laments lack of practice for Melbourne woes
Sebastian Vettel believes Aston Martin could have had a better qualifying for the Australian GP had they been able to get more on-track running during practice.
The German says he could have improved over his sole Q1 with another run and expects more to come from his car during the race. Speaking post-qualifying, he said:
“I had little to no practice. So, it’s difficult to know where the limit is without any laps. If I had another set [of tires] then you would go faster. We don’t know how fast, but we find out tomorrow how fast we are but for today.”
Sebastian Vettel was on the verge of not being able to participate in qualifying after his heavy FP3 shunt. A late red flag caused by Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi’s incident, however, helped the team get Vettel out for a single final run.