Sebastian Vettel, who made his FIA Formula 1 World Championship race debut in the United States back in 2007, will attack his final race in the country before retirement this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas.
The German debuted for the BMW Sauber F1 Team at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in place of the unavailable Robert Kubica in 2007, who was ruled out after a high-speed crash in the preceding Canadian Grand Prix, and Vettel went on to score a point for eighth place.
Despite it being fifteen years ago, Vettel still finds excitement in his racing and coming to the United States, and cannot wait for the challenge this weekend at CotA.
“I made my Formula One debut at the US Grand Prix, at Indianapolis, fifteen years ago,” said Vettel. “It is always a great feeling to return – especially to such an exciting track, with lots of really challenging sectors.”
Vettel has been encouraged by the recent points scoring run of his Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team, with the German himself helping himself to an eighth and a sixth-place finish in the past two races in Singapore and Japan.
And he hopes that the momentum the team has built up can continue at the Circuit of the Americas.
“As ever, it is tough to predict exactly where we will be in the midfield battle, but recent races have shown we can regularly challenge for points positions, so I feel confident,” the German said.
“We want to carry our positive momentum all the way to the end of the season.”
“We have shown great pace in recent races” – Lance Stroll
Team-mate Lance Stroll missed out on points in Japan last time out but finished sixth in the Singapore Grand Prix, and the Canadian is hopeful the team can continue their points scoring run in the United States.
Aston Martin have closed the gap to Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN to just seven points with four races remaining thanks to their results in the past two events, and Stroll believes the team can overhaul their rivals across the remaining races.
“Austin Is an incredible city that has an electric atmosphere throughout the F1 weekend, I am really excited to get lapping at Circuit of the Americas,” said Stroll. “We have shown great pace in recent races and I believe we will here as well.
“Additionally, we now find ourselves in a fight for sixth position in the Constructors’ Championship after a couple of strong team results, so we will be looking to pick up more points and close that gap in the standings.”
