Sebastian Vettel says the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team are continuing to improve their AMR21 car this year, and he hopes for more progress to be made this weekend in Monaco.
The four-time World Champion is one of only seven drivers not yet to score a point in the opening four races of the season, although Vettel was involved in the battle for points in the Spanish Grand Prix last time out before fading to thirteenth at the chequered flag.
Vettel says Aston Martin have often struggled for performance in Qualifying trim this year, which has made it more difficult to use their often-better race pace, and he hopes this can be rectified this weekend at the Circuit de Monaco.
“There’s a long season ahead, and the new parts we ran in Barcelona felt like an improvement and are helping us to move forward,” said Vettel. “The goal is to build on that in Monte-Carlo.
“We know that our race pace has often been stronger than our single-lap pace, so we’ll be focusing extra hard on that all-important qualifying performance this weekend. I’m excited for the challenge of Monaco – there’s no other track like it.”
“With such a tight battle in the midfield, anything can happen” – Lance Stroll
Team-mate Lance Stroll also missed out on points in the Spanish Grand Prix, losing out late in the day to the charging Pierre Gasly, but he knows he will need to put that behind him heading to Monte Carlo.
Stroll says it was a shame that Formula 1 did not race in Monaco in 2020 after it was one of the events to drop off the calendar due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, he is looking forward to returning there this year and enjoying his weekend as he bids to fight for a top ten finish.
“It was a shame not to be able to race at Monaco last year, so I’m really excited we’re returning this year,” said Stroll. “We know we need to keep pushing hard to find improvements, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
“With such a tight battle in the midfield, anything can happen – especially at a place like this. If we execute our weekend strongly, we’ll be aiming for the points.”
