“It just didn’t work out for us,” says Sebastian Vettel. Because the four-time Formula 1 world champion had actually calculated a few things from 16th on the grid. Vettel had given points as a goal for the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. After 70 laps of the race, however, the German only finished twelfth and thus came away empty-handed.
“It just wasn’t our day,” says Vettel, who started on Medium. After just five laps he came into the pits for the first time in the Aston Martin AMR22, swapped medium for hard and planned a long second stint. Just 14 laps later, however, Vettel got another set of tires with the hard compound and drove through with them.
The problem was that his strategy didn’t work. Or as Vettel puts it on ‘Sky’: “The virtual safety car phases broke our necks both times. Virtually all drivers got a free stop, the second time all those who didn’t turn the first time. And that was over, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
At the restart after the safety car phase in the last third of the race, Vettel was initially still in the top 10, but was quickly overtaken on used hard tires and dropped out of the points from P9 to finally cross the finish line in twelfth.
His teammate Lance Stroll, coming from 17th on the grid, delayed his only tire change until lap 47 and had the timing of the final caution phase on his side. Thanks to fresher tires he moved up into the top 10 and scored a championship point for Aston Martin.
That’s another reason why Vettel is “not so satisfied,” as he says. Reason: “I think we could have scored more points today.” The fact that his team didn’t get anywhere in the wet qualifying weighs twice as much and is “bitter” for the final result in the race, says Vettel.
“Because I think we were quick enough to take more than a few points. I think we could have even grabbed another [Alpine] but it was a very different race than what we needed.”
He was actually “well” on the road, emphasizes Vettel. Only the (virtual) safety car phases would have slowed him down tactically. “We lost a lot of time there and it was difficult to make up for it,” explains Vettel. His conclusion: “It just didn’t seem to be going in our direction since Saturday afternoon.”
Vettel almost even got a penalty: The sports commissioners investigated a possible violation of the rules by the ex-champion behind the safety car because Vettel had temporarily fallen behind the car in front by more than the permitted ten car lengths.
However, the sports commissioners refrained from a penalty. Because: “At the end of the safety car phase [Vettel] closed the gap again and then held the required position.” And: Other drivers were also guilty of the same offense. “Under these circumstances, the sports commissioners do not consider a penalty to be appropriate,” the verdict says.
The question about the helmet that he actually wanted to wear during the race left Vettel unanswered for the time being. “I don’t want to say anything now,” he replied to a reporter from the TV channel Sky Sport. He also did not want to comment on the question of whether he had given up the helmet under pressure from the team in a protest against tar sand mining in Canada.
His political statement on a T-shirt and his critical words about so-called tar sand mining in the direction of Canadian politics at the press conference before the Formula 1 race in Montréal triggered an equally clear reaction. Sonya Savage, Alberta’s environment minister for the province of Alberta, had accused Vettel via Twitter: “I’ve seen a lot of hypocrisy over the years, but this is the crowning glory.”
She had also reproached him that his racing team Aston Martin is sponsored by Aramco, which is considered the largest oil production company in the world and comes from Saudi Arabia. “Maybe with pedal cars for Formula 1?” The politician continued.
Formula 1 expert Ralf Schumacher says on Sky that Vettel’s hope for points was low from the start. It was “foreseeable” that Aston Martin would find it difficult to drive so far up the field.
“Even Charles Leclerc in the supposedly strongest car, when you see what Sainz was able to do in the end, didn’t have a chance to plow through. I had said that before: the Aston Martin is still too weak for that,” says Schumacher. Vettel sold “all in all not badly”, the outcome of the race was “a shame” for his German compatriot.
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The Aston Martin result was only “nice” for Stroll, Schumacher continued. Coming from behind, the Aston Martin driver “did a decent job” and scored points at the home race in Canada.
“I’m happy for him,” says Schumacher, “because he didn’t have an easy year either. He had to listen to a lot, including from me, but that’s the way it is. It wasn’t any different for me before.”
In the Formula 1 drivers’ standings, the positions of Aston Martin drivers Vettel and Stroll remain unchanged. In the constructors’ championship, however, the team pulled away from the penultimate team in the table thanks to Stroll’s point.
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The original of this article “Vettel suddenly doesn’t want to talk about Zoff with a politician because of the climate shirt” comes from Motorsport-Total.com.
