Aston Martin Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer is relieved that Sebastian Vettel is staying with his team.
Vettel was confirmed by Aston Martin recently, and was one of the last drivers to be announced for the upcoming season. The rumours surrounding his future were significant, with talks of Vettel retiring also doing the rounds.
Aston Martin rubbished all those rumours and put them to bed by re-signing the four-time world champion. Szafnauer is relieved that Vettel is staying with the team, and said that had he left, it would have been very difficult to maintain continuity.
“I think continuity will definitely help and they work well together,” Szafnauer said, as quoted by Planet F1.
“Sebastian is now getting used to the team more so it would have been a shame for him to stop and us (to) get somebody else that isn’t used to the team. The team’s new, the regulations are new, so it wouldn’t have been good.
“Especially in an era like this, it’s really good to have that continuity, and we have that now with both drivers, which is great.”
Smooth process
Szafnuer insisted that contract talks between Vettel and Aston Martin were very smooth. The only reason it took a while was because some details in his contract needed modification.
“When you have options on both sides, then it’s really like renegotiating, but we wanted him to continue and Seb wanted to continue,” Szafnauer explained.
“It’s just some of the details that were changed and those had to be discussed, and it doesn’t happen that quickly.
“We’ll do that (negotiating his new contract) earlier next year. It will help you guys, too. Less questions. We usually don’t disclose, out of respect for Seb, the details of his contract and the things we negotiated.
“We like Seb, he likes us and let’s see what happens. Like I said, even over Christmas, we could contemplate that stuff. Let’s have a good year in 2022 and then decide,” he concluded.
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