The double whammy that is defining Vettel’s F1 fate
It's been a tough start to Sebastian Vettel's Aston Martin F1 career, with a lack of pre-season testing mileage followed by an incident-packed Bahrain GP. But two key underlying factors mean a turnaround is not guaranteed
Sebastian Vettel needs no reminding that in Formula 1 you are only as good as your last race. Being labelled as grand prix racing’s biggest star, or its biggest chump, can so often happen based on just a single weekend’s performance.
So, as the four-time world champion heads to Imola after a bruising outing in Bahrain, it’s no real surprise that he isn’t surrounded by the kind of mega hype that has accompanied Yuki Tsunoda after his stunning debut F1 weekend in Bahrain. Instead, Vettel is in need of a boost after a challenging first few weeks for Aston Martin that have left him firmly on the back foot.
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Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.
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