“He is not a hundred per cent there, but he is close”– Otmar Szafnauer on Sebastian Vettel

“He is not a hundred per cent there, but he is close”– Otmar Szafnauer delighted with Sebastian Vettel progress after Monaco GP success.

Sebastian Vettel bagged an impressive P5 with Aston Martin in Monaco, signalling that the German still has much to offer to Formula 1 even at this stage of his career.

Otmar Szafnauer delighted with Vettel’s performance that there are still gaps to fill, but he is close to the maximum, which is positive for Aston martin.

“He is not a hundred per cent there. I spoke to him about it coming into this weekend (Monaco), but he is close,” he said as per GPFans. “He feels much more comfortable, and after every race and qualifying session, he gets closer and closer.

“I’ve talked to other drivers, too, who have switched teams and are going through the same or similar process, and they said their guess was it was going to take about five races for them to really feel comfortable.

“My guess for Seb, I mean we are trying to predict the future, is that it will probably be in that realm too.”

He’s getting comfortable, and that’s what needed

Vettel gave his best performance at not only Aston Martin but also his best showing since he started to struggle in Ferrari since the second part of 2019.

“He’s getting more and more comfortable in the car, and the margins are really, really tight, especially in the midfield,” he added. “If you don’t feel comfortable in the car and you don’t push it to its limits, just barely away from it, then you are a tenth [of a second] off or two-tenths off.

“But he feels more comfortable in the car, and there is no more difficult track to drive than Monaco if you don’t feel comfortable.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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