For a long time it was unclear whether Sebastian Vettel would continue with Aston Martin for another season. Now the racing team has finally confirmed its drivers for the coming year. According to this, Vettel and Lance Stroll will continue to hunt for points in the green racing cars in 2022.
It was a surprisingly difficult birth. Originally, Aston Martin had announced the announcement of its drivers for the coming season for the end of the summer break. After delays, it was initially said that it would be so far in Zandvoort. Then you were put off by the team management at Monza.
On Thursday (September 16), four days after the Italian GP, the time had finally come. As expected, Aston Martin will continue in 2022 with Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll. The hanging game in the past few weeks had fueled rumors in the paddock that Vettel could perhaps hang up his helmet prematurely in order to devote more time to the fight for climate protection and equality.
It's impossible to say how much truth there was in these speculations. At least there was nothing to be read in the official statement about doubts about his Formula 1 future. Accordingly, Vettel is already looking forward to attacking with the new generation of cars, which will be launched for the first time in the coming season.
New cars, new opportunities
The man from Heppenheim has high hopes for the rule revolution: "The look of the racing cars is completely different. And the new technical regulations should lead to cars with which you can fight against each other much better than that was the case recently. This makes the races more exciting - for drivers and fans alike."
Vettel also hopes that his team can jump up the rankings again. After fourth place last year for Racing Point, the racing team fell under the new name Aston Martin to currently seventh position in the constructors' cup. "The changes next year are so big that all teams are starting from scratch again. This is a great opportunity for us at Aston Martin. I believe in the strength of our growing team and I'm looking forward to 2022."
By the way, there were no longer any major negotiations about the contract extension. The conditions for the optional extension of the deal to 2022 had already been agreed by both parties in the previous year. Therefore, observers also wondered why the confirmation dragged on for so long. The team made it clear early on that they saw no reason to change anything about the Stroll/Vettel pairing.
When making the announcement for 2022, racing team owner Lawrence Stroll emphasized once again that the reason for the crash in the team standings is not to be found in the drivers: "The first season under the Aston Martin name started out disappointing for us, which was the reason that the regulations changed over the winter put the two teams that use a vehicle concept with few employees at a disadvantage.But we've made good progress in the last few months."
Last F1 season for Vettel?
The two drivers received special praise from the Canadian billionaire: "Both Lance and Sebastian have put in some excellent performances. Unfortunately, both of them had an unusual amount of bad luck, but looking ahead to the 2022 season, we're happy that we'll continue with such an outstanding mix of young talent and an experienced expert."
Son Lance Stroll is also optimistic about the future with his German team-mate: "We started the journey together with Aston Martin and I'm already looking forward to continuing the journey with him next year. We didn't achieve what we set out to do this year, but that only increased our appetite for success and our motivation for the coming season."
Sebastian Vettel will be entering his 16th season as a regular driver in the premier class in 2022 If everything goes normally, the 34-year-old will be the seventh driver to reach the mark of 300 Grands Prix starts at the end of next year. Depend on the regulations and his new company car.
