F1's technical director, the former technical chief at Ferrari and the founder of Brawn GP which became the Mercedes F1 team, Ross Brawn has come out with high praise for Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel post the Azerbaijan GP. He has called the former 4-time world champion a man reborn after many believed that the 33-year-old German was past his prime after a torrid couple of years at Ferrari and a poor start to his Aston Martin career.
Ross Brawn was the technical brains for Ferrari when Michael Schumacher won his 5 titles with the team
"I was one of the people who was uncertain about the decision Aston made in signing him up, but it's looking to be a great call because of the way he's driving and the results he's getting," Brawn wrote in a column on the Formula 1 website.
"He's reborn again. He's refreshed. There's a different vibe about him. And it just shows how the whole psychological aspect can impact performance. Seb has found himself in a much more comfortable place, with the right sort of pressure and with engineers who he is learning to work with. He's getting results and he deserves it. Bravo," said the man who was one of the lynchpins around Michael Schumacher's success.
In May 2020, Ferrari announced that it wouldn't be renewing the German's contract but instead hired Carlos Sainz Jr to replace him. This happened before the 2020 season started as it was delayed due to the pandemic. As fate would have it, Ferrari endured its worst season in 40 years, but the German was handily beaten by the then 22-year old Charles Leclerc, somewhat embarrassingly.
Vettel's stint at Aston Martin could be the German's swan song
His signing at Racing Point which would be rebranded to Aston Martin was controversial as he replaced Sergio Perez who had a contract till 2023 with the team. He was by far the team's best driver ahead of Lance Stroll, the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll. This created a situation where the impressive Mexican was left without a drive for 2021, though at the end of the season it was announced that Perez would be joining Red Bull, Vettel's old team with which the German had won his 4 world titles.
And on Sunday, it so happened, Perez cashed in when his teammate Max Verstappen crashed to win the race, but Vettel drilled in an even better performance reaching P2, the first podium finish for Aston Martin as a constructor that too from P11. This was his second impressive performance on a trot as the German came P5 in Monaco. In both races, he was voted driver of the day.
"I think I was confident that at some point it (would) start clicking and obviously Monaco was great. You can argue that it takes off a bit of pressure but I think obviously the expectations, in general, are fairly high at the beginning of the year so it was good to get a good result," said a jubilant Vettel at the end of the race, now on 28 points, P9 overall in the driver's championship after scoring zero points in the first four races.
