Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel joined the team ahead of the 2021 season and currently has a year left on his deal.
Despite an ambitious plan launched by owner Lawrence Stroll, Aston Martin has largely struggled ever since Vettel’s arrival and there have been suggestions that he may even quit the sport at the end of his contract.
Almost dismissing any such speculation, Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack spoke with F1’s official website and explained how they are already in talks with Vettel regarding an extension.
“Well, we are in talks,” he said.
“Sebastian is very, very positive, very constructive, so from that point of view, I really hope that we can continue.
“Also, maybe the investment that he has made now over two years, he should also maybe be in a position to get something from it and not hand it to someone else later.
“But we’re confident that we can make this a success with the talks that we are having.”
Aston Martin has been visibly struggling for a while now, but Krack was quick to compliment the work ethic of both Vettel and Lance Stroll.
“I think both drivers, we really have to say hats off, how they cope with it, how constructive they still are with us,” he said.
“There is no bad word, nothing at all. We try to do this together, try to get out together, they give us very good feedback.
“And it would be easy for them to get frustrated but this is not what happens.
“Both Lance [Stroll] and Sebastian, they’re very constructive in all the meetings and you could not sense any lack of pushing or motivation from the current situation.”
Recently, Aston Martin brought an upgrade to its AMR22 for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Illegal data transfer by Aston Martin?
Owing to its uncanny resemblance to the RB18, Red Bull had vowed to “investigate” its design as there was speculation amongst Red Bull staff that Aston Martin had indulged in illegal data transfer.
However, the car barely performed much better and rather left Aston Martin with a sizeable dent in its budget cap.
“Yes, we want to continue developing this car – obviously we need to respect the financial implications that we are having – but we have a plan in place that we made a while ago that we are trying to follow as much as we can,” Krack said.
“Obviously you always have to adjust it depending on what is your wind tunnel result, what is your latest race result, but we’re very confident that we can improve it further, and we will do so race by race.
“We need to balance now what are we going to do with the current car, and how much of a compromise do we take in continuing with the current car and going into the next one?
“It’s a tough call. We’re only halfway into the season, we must not forget. We do not want to continue now the year on this level of performance.”
Vettel currently stands in the 14th spot in the driver’s standings while Stroll is placed 19th.