Sebastian Vettel feels he has a lot “to learn and catch up” after his first “proper” day driving Aston Martin’s Formula 1 car and exploring Mercedes’ engine.
Vettel has only raced with Renault and Ferrari engines in the V6 turbo-hybrid era but finally gets a chance to sample Mercedes power following his switch to Aston Martin, the rebranded Racing Point team that won a race with Sergio Perez last year.
He was able to use the team’s shakedown to familiarise himself with the car briefly on-track but that was mainly to check his seating position and run through some systems checks with the team.
Those filming days, limited to 100km of running, also have to be completed on demonstration tyres rather than Pirelli’s race-spec tyres.
Vettel had a setback in the form of a stoppage in the pitlane on his first morning in the AMR21, and track conditions were not ideal with high winds, but he said it was a “very productive” experience that gave him a clear idea of where to improve.
“There’s still a lot of new things I need to get used to,” Vettel admitted.
“Obviously the car is different, it’s run differently, it’s a different power unit, a lot of different switches, buttons, procedures.
“But also in terms of handling, the car is different, so a different approach, and then basic stuff, steering, brakes, the car behaviour that I need to get used to.
“There’s still quite a bit of margin for myself, and improvement that I have to do on driving, just getting familiar with the car.”
Of the Mercedes engine, which has powered the works team to seven consecutive title doubles, Vettel said: “It’s obviously very different, it’s operated differently, so a lot of dry stuff just in terms of operation, running, is different to what I’m used to.
“That’s mostly for me to get up to speed.
“But obviously in terms of performance, everybody knows the strength of the Mercedes engine, so on that front we don’t have an excuse.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Vettel completed 51 laps of the Sakhir circuit before handing over to team-mate Lance Stroll. He ended the day 13th-fastest although lap times are largely meaningless at this stage.
The four-time world champion said “the important thing is that I know where we can improve”.
“It’s always related to track conditions,” he said of the AMR21’s initial performance.
“Everybody was fighting their car.
“There’s still a lot of things I need to learn and catch up. For now, I didn’t pay great attention to the lap times.
“It was more just on feeling and running through our stuff to try and get a proper read of the car, a lot of data that we try to extract.
“Maybe a bit boring at this stage, but it was fun to be in the car, fun to slide around. I enjoyed it and there’s more to come in the next days.”
