Sebastian Vettel has admitted that he feels that Aston Martin’s 2021 Styrian Grand Prix weekend is ‘looking encouraging’ after a positive Friday Practice.
Vettel finished FP1 14th quickest but was able to find improvement of 0.774 seconds in FP2 on his best FP1 lap time to finish the day sixth fastest overall, which has left the German confident, commenting: “Our pace over one lap is looking encouraging and I think we can squeeze out more from the longer runs.”
Vettel added that he believes that he has “a good idea of where we can make those improvements, which is the most important thing.”
Rain however continues to be forecast across the weekend which Vettel has described as “tricky to predict” and is wary of how crucial timing of rainfall and track position will be, adding: “… it is going to be about making sure we are on the right tyres at the right time and reacting well to the conditions.”
Lance Stroll meanwhile finished eighth in both sessions as he found 0.505s in his fastest lap times from FP1 to FP2, with the Canadian happy with the fact that his car “felt good” throughout both sessions which he described as “positive” for his side of the team.
The Canadian though has pointed out that work still need doing on his car heading into tomorrow, saying: “We know where we can make some improvements, such as the balance in the low-speed corners, so we will go away tonight and review the data to see where we can find some further improvements.”
On the concern of rain potentially impacting Qualifying and the race, Stroll has admitted that he “will not complain” if rain affects the rest of this weekend, especially given given his “love” of wet racing conditions after taking pole in a wet Turkish Qualifying session last season.