With a strong driving performance and a good dose of luck, Sebastian Vettel finished on the podium at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. For the first time, the Formula 1 driver is on the podium for Aston Martin. The success should herald the lasting end of a difficult time.
It is also a story of lower demands. “I felt good all weekend, but I certainly did not expect second place,” said Sebastian Vettel after the award ceremony of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, in which the Aston Martin driver was allowed to climb onto the podium for his new team for the first time . He started the race in eleventh place and made up nine positions over the 51 laps. Only Sergio Pérez in the Red Bull saw the checkered flag in black and white before Vettel. The Formula 1 fans voted the German driver of the day in a memorable Grand Prix thanks to a faultless and impressive performance.
Of course, this award is recognition for a remarkable performance on the demanding street circuit of Baku. But the four-time world champion also received this encouragement because such strong performances had recently become rare. Because he owed such accomplishments far too often. Achievements worthy of a four-time world champion.
Because even if it was ultimately the misfortune of those driving in front of him that brought him to the podium – a tire blown out of the race for World Championship leader Max Verstappen and World Championship runner-up Lewis Hamilton a brake at the bottom of the field – it was Vettel’s merit to be in a position to benefit from it in the first place. And the 33-year-old is now able to bring himself back to such a position.
Starting position eleven turned out to be a decisive advantage over the top ten in qualifying. Unlike the ten cars in front of him, Vettel was able to drive off with fresh tires and delay his first pit stop much longer than the competition. “The key was that we could stay out for a long time,” said the 33-year-old, because “when everyone was in the pits, I also had good pace.” The comparatively low tire wear of the Aston Martin made itself felt in the streets of the Azerbaijani capital. As a result, Vettel even drove his first laps in the lead since the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix because all the drivers in front of him had to stop earlier.
Is the “difficult start” finally a thing of the past?
As a result, Vettel had the fresher and therefore faster tires after his visit to the pits, when the field pushed together behind the safety car on lap 31 as a result of Lance Stroll’s violent departure. Immediately after the restart, he surprised his former Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc on the way to turn one and then used the slipstream on the long start-finish straight to take fourth place from Pierre Gasly in the Alpha Tauri. “A very good day for us,” summed up Vettel after the race. According to him, fourth place would have already been a success, the unpredictable final phase with its 40-minute break after the Verstappen crash would not have needed it.
However, the tire damage at the Dutch championship leader initially gave Vettel third place, and when Lewis Hamilton did not steer his Mercedes to the left in the first corner at the second restart, but drove straight ahead, Vettel was suddenly second. “All of this means a lot to me because we had such a difficult start together,” said the 33-year-old, who did not get past 13th place in the first four races of the current season. Too little for the claims of Vettel himself and Aston Martin. The ambitious racing team had finally hired him as a bearer of hope and construction helper, who should make the former Racing Point team victorious in the long term.
The “difficult start”, however, caused criticism, primarily from outside, to grow. Maybe the miserable performance in the last Ferrari year wasn’t just due to the weak car, so the argument goes, maybe the end of his career would have been the better choice. Vettel was not worried about it, at least externally. He already showed a clear improvement in Monaco, achieved his best result in fifth – and has now improved in Baku. It is true that two good races on the narrow and demanding city tracks do not forget the changeable appearances before. Nevertheless, the four-time world champion was noticeable in the interviews after the podium in Baku that he felt a certain relief.
Because things are finally on the up again after the continuous downward trend that characterized his last year at Ferrari and now threatened to continue at Aston Martin. Now the curve is pointing upwards, thanks to two placements in the points, which he had previously failed to do for 17 races. And because a continuation of this series means that an achievement like the one in Baku does not automatically make him the driver of the day. Which is an award. But it also results from the fact that the demands on Sebastian Vettel had previously decreased significantly. And now we are finally climbing again, including himself: “I hope that we will now score points more regularly.”
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