Sebastian Vettel has suggested a decision on his Formula 1 future will depend on how this season pans out with Aston Martin.
The Silverstone-based outfit currently sits bottom of the constructors’ championship amid its on-track struggles in the opening three races of 2022.
Alex Albon’s top-10 finish in Melbourne for Williams means Aston Martin remains the only team yet to score this year, with a best finish of 12th place.
Vettel is currently in his second season driving for Aston Martin since joining from Ferrari last year, but the four-time world champion has had a miserable campaign having missed the first two races through covid and crashing out of the Australian Grand Prix.
His contract with the British car manufacturer expires at the end of the year, and with speculation over his long-term future, Vettel was clear the team’s form this season would be a factor in his decision.
“No secrets, it will depend on obviously how this year goes and then take it from there. My contract ends at the end of this season,” Vettel said, as quoted by Motorsport Week.
While it has proved a challenging start to 2022, Vettel insists it would be wrong to write off Aston’s season at such an early stage as it bids to to get on top of the new regulations.
“Obviously, it’s not the year that everyone in the team hoped for, at least the start of the season, but I think it would be bad to write it off already,” Vettel said.
“It’s only race three, it’s new regulations, there are so many things we are currently struggling with when it comes to performance with our car, extracting the performance. I think others have the same or similar problems.
“So lots of things that we can still understand and learn and the next weeks and months will be very important to set the direction for this year, but also for learning and knowing what to do in the next three, four years.
“I feel that it would be wrong to write this season off, absolutely wrong. It’s just started. I only had one race and didn’t even finish that race.
“So plenty of things we can still improve and learn, and then in a couple of weeks and months, I think we are in a better place to judge where we really are.
“Because the spirit is good the team is you know willing to very willing to be at the front at the minute we’re not it’s not a secret. But lots of work going in.”
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