Formula 1 | To keep Vettel, Aston Martin F1 will have to show ‘potential’
Aston Martin F1 has recruited Sebastian Vettel to spearhead its team since last year.
The team would like the German driver to extend his contract and Mike Krack, the new director, admits that the team must show immediate potential, but also in the medium term, to convince him.
“I hope my arrival is enough for him to stay” Krack said. « No, just kidding! It’s clear that a guy like Sebastian, a four-time world champion, doesn’t want to be 15th, 12th or eighth. That’s clear. »
« It’s our task to deliver a performing car and a performing structure because Sebastian is a smart guy. He will not just focus on this year’s car but more on what’s going on and if he sees the potential. . »
« So if we manage to offer him that, we have a chance to keep him for longer. To be honest with you, I haven’t talked to him about it. It’s something that will come. But overall, it’s our job to provide him with the right package, so that he stays and other riders want to join him. »
Krack calls Vettel ‘very smart’
In 2006 and 2007, Krack witnessed Vettel’s F1 debut, when he was a test driver placed by Red Bull at BMW F1, then a freelance replacement for injured Robert Kubica. The former engineer recognizes that the current Vettel is a totally different person, but who knows how to weld the team.
« Seb should not be there to support everyone, but on the contrary it is very important for drivers of this class that they feel the support of the team. is to be transparent about what we expect, where we are, and that’s something that I also managed with all the pilots that I had in the past with my former employers.
« Seb manages to unite the team around him by not always being nice but by being respectful. It’s an ethic that I largely share, so that’s one of the reasons why I think we we hear very well. »
« But, compared to the last time I was around him, he’s become a four-time world champion and he’s accumulated a huge amount of experience. He’s a very intelligent man, that’s also why manages to combine his experience and channel it in the right way. »
« He doesn’t say ‘in the past I had this, in the past I had that’. He knows exactly what he needs to go faster, so from that perspective it’s great to have him. And he can lead us as a team in our development. »
