Vettel: Still "a lot left on the table" with Aston F1 team
Aston Martin Formula 1 driver Sebastian Vettel says there's "still a lot left on the table" after a low-key Friday in Bahrain, his first grand prix weekend with the team.
In a tight midfield pack, the former Ferrari driver finished FP1 in 12th place before slipping two places to 14th in FP2, where he was 0.922s off the pace-setting Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
His team-mate Lance Stroll was 13th and eighth in the two sessions.
The four-time world champion was badly compromised at the recent Bahrain test by mechanical issues that left him "100 laps" short of his desired total. He completed the fewest lap tally of any driver on 117, less than half the total managed by Pierre Gasly, who topped the list.
With the limited running at the test, Vettel admitted that he was still struggling to get the car to his liking around the full lap.
"I feel that there's still a lot left on the table just to get used to the car, and being able to squeeze the limit," he said. "Right now it seems a bit up and down.
"Sometimes I'm really good, in other corners I'm far out, but that's normal. Hopefully [we can] come tomorrow with more consistent running [and] I'm able to squeeze the limit everywhere."
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
All drivers also had to get used to the new more compact Friday format, with only an hour in each session instead of the usual 90 minutes, which meant teams had to squeeze their usual run plans into the shorter timeframe.
"Well, it was busy," Vettel said.
"We tried to get the most out of the time that we had.
"Every lap still still helps you to get used to the car, and get into a rhythm. I'm trying a lot of things. Still, I think there's a lot to try, a lot to learn. It seems like fun.
"We are we obviously now looking into some of the stuff that we tried in the afternoon or the evening, and hopefully, it will be a bit more clear and calmer tomorrow.
"But I think that's probably true for all the rest of the pack as well."
Aston Martin makes floor changes amid low rake rules hit
Norris plays down McLaren’s pace in Bahrain GP practice
Top 10 Brabham drivers ranked: Piquet, Lauda, Gurney and more
Its 30 years since the Brabham team started its last world championship grand prix. Time to pick out the best drivers of the once-great Formula 1 squad.
Why F1 2022 tech isn’t all about porpoising and sidepods
Once fears over identikit Formula 1 cars were allayed by visibly different approaches to sidepods and floors, other novel design features have cropped up around the rest of the car.
Bottas feels greater "human effect" on F1 car performance at Alfa Romeo
Valtteri Bottas feels he is able to have a greater "human effect" on the performance of his Alfa Romeo Formula 1 car compared to what he found at Mercedes.
Norris: Long-term McLaren F1 deal allows for better work-life balance
Lando Norris believes his long-term Formula 1 deal with McLaren has allowed him to strike a better work-life balance and relax more away from racing.
The 10 stories to watch out for across the rest of the 2022 F1 season
It’s 13 down, nine to go as the Formula 1 teams pause for breath in the summer break. But what can we expect to happen over the next three months from Belgium to Abu Dhabi? Here's the key storylines to keep an eye out for the rest of the 2022 season
The inconvenient truth about F1’s ‘American driver’ dream
OPINION: The Formula 1 grid's wait for a new American driver looks set to continue into 2023 as the few remaining places up for grabs - most notably at McLaren - look set to go elsewhere. This is despite the Woking outfit giving tests to IndyCar aces recently, showing that the Stateside single-seater series still has some way to go to being seen as a viable feeder option for F1
How a bad car creates the ultimate engineering challenge
While creating a car that is woefully off the pace is a nightmare scenario for any team, it inadvertently generates the test any engineering department would relish: to turn it into a winner. As Mercedes takes on that challenge in Formula 1 this season, McLaren’s former head of vehicle engineering reveals how the team pulled of the feat in 2009 with Lewis Hamilton
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior