IS VETTEL THE RIGHT MAN FOR ASTON MARTIN?

Of course, the hope for Vettel and Aston Martin will be that Ferrari’s constant underperformance, its political in-fighting and its shift in focus to Leclerc has worn Vettel down, and he’s simply in need of reinvigorating.

A fresh start, in a team that wants him badly, with an exciting project that will benefit from his off-track approach as well as what he brings on-track on his good days – these are all valid reasons to think 2021-spec Vettel will be a different prospect to the current version.

Racing Point has had grand ambitions ever since Lawrence Stroll and his consortium revived the team formerly known as Force India, and the Aston era is a part of that.

Podiums and wins have been targeted because Stroll wants to make this one of F1’s strongest entities – so, all being well, Vettel will get back to having a car that puts him out of harm’s way and allows his stronger attributes to shine through.

Patience will be required to get there, though, because chances are in his first year with Aston Martin Vettel will be tasked with spearheading a push for third in the constructors’ championship and having a good chunk of races locked in battle with his former employer Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and maybe AlphaTauri.

In all likelihood, in 2021 and beyond, Vettel will still find himself in a battle that offers no hiding place. So he will need to rediscover his qualifying majesty, and he will need to overcome his deficiency in combat.

While Vettel has spent half his time at Ferrari courting criticism, he spent a decent chunk of the other half winning.

Whatever he says to the contrary, that weakness exists. That doesn’t mean it’s permanent – maybe he’s going through an extended version of whatever got under Hamilton’s skin in 2011 – but it is real.

If Aston helps Vettel get on top of that, it will quash a major uncertainty about his prospects in a new environment. That in turn will go a long way to creating the atmosphere Vettel needs to thrive. It could create the sort of positive momentum that Vettel seemed to run out of at Ferrari a while ago.

But if the mistakes continue, it’ll breed more of the same. That would risk defining his Aston spell in the worst way. For while Vettel has spent half his time at Ferrari courting criticism, he spent a decent chunk of the other half winning. That was always a decent amount of goodwill to fall back on. Sure, Vettel will always be a world champion – and no doubt he and his new team will lean on that should there be difficult days – but the longer he goes without fresh success, the more successful he was.

Vettel can make this a success. He’s a hard worker, a fast driver, has bags of experience and an open enough mind to know when things need to improve. And there are things within himself that need to improve.

Starting the Aston F1 era with a world champion on board is considered a huge statement of intent by the team.

Dispel the doubts from his Ferrari decline and Vettel will prove it’s justified.

Fail to do so and he, and Aston, will be left to trade on his past glories.

IS VETTEL THE RIGHT MAN FOR ASTON MARTIN? IS VETTEL THE RIGHT MAN FOR ASTON MARTIN?

F1 EIFEL GP NURBURGRING : OCON IS OPTIMISTIC

RALF : “RED BULL CAN BUILD ITS OWN ENGINE FOR 2022”

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL THE F1 NEWS VIA Facebook AND Twitter