Sebastian Vettel has admitted that his “lack of race experience” in the Aston Martin AMR22 contributed to his crash in the 2022 Australian Grand Prix.
Vettel had missed the first two races of the season following a positive Coronavirus test but endured a difficult return to racing this weekend, having suffered a power unit issue in FP1 before he crashed out of FP3 at Turn 10 during FP3 which limited his running heavily.
The four-time champion however was able to only manage one flying lap in Qualifying to put him 18th on the grid before Alex Albon was disqualified, which bumped him up a position as he started the race from 17th on hard tyres.
Vettel’s race though ended on Lap 23 as he spun out on the exit of Turn Four, with the German admitting that his “lack of race experience” in the AMR22 car didn’t help him much in the race.
Explaining what exactly caused him to spin out, Vettel said: “I was pushing a little too hard and I lost the car on the kerbs at Turn Four and could not prevent the impact, which is very frustrating.
“Every lap in race conditions counts because this was my first time racing this car, so it is a shame not to have completed the race.”
Vettel also noted that the car is quite “challenging” to drive but has vowed to continue his “… search for solutions to add more performance.”
Lance Stroll meanwhile enjoyed a solid race as he recovered from 19th on the grid to get as high as eighth but his three-stop strategy saw him eventually finish 12th, despite getting a five-second time penalty for defending position with more than one change of direction.
Speaking post-race, the Canadian felt that he simply “did not quite have the pace for points today,” despite trying to defend a top ten finish by running every racing lap on hard tyres, having only done one lap on medium tyres during the first Safety Car period.
On the topic of his time penalty, Stroll wasn’t overall pleased as he added: “The five-second penalty was frustrating, even though it did not change our final race position.
“I caught Valtteri [Bottas] after the Virtual Safety Car and made up a place so it was frustrating to receive a penalty for weaving.”
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