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Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer claimed that former four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel is the best driver he's worked with in F1. The German raced for the Silverstone-based outfit in the final two years of his career after his highly publicized six years at Ferrari.
The former Red Bull driver replaced Sergio Perez at the team, who moved to the Austrian team in 2021 to race alongside Max Verstappen. Although Vettel couldn't recreate the powerful performances he showcased at Red Bull and Ferrari, he led Aston Martin to their first podium on their return to the sport in Baku 2021.
While appearing on the High-Performance podcast, Szafnauer surprisingly picked Sebastian Vettel as the best driver he's worked with despite their one season together in Aston Martin, saying:
"The thing I like most about Seb is his relentless work ethic and he does have that competitiveness that fire in his belly. Seb was used to winning he's won a lot as a four-time world champion. I'm sure the consideration at the other teams he was at was always right at a restart when I'm in the lead, I want to know on the front straight the area of the track that has the highest grip level.
"But it's that no stone unturned probability of us leading a race at a restart at Aston Martin wasn't high but he didn't care I need to know just in case and that's an example." (50:35)
Former Aston Martin team boss chimes in on his exit from the team
Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer stated that despite having a "decent" run at the team, team owner Lawrence Stroll wanted to have success "sooner" which led to him bringing Martin Whitmarsh into the role of Group CEO.
As quoted by the aforementioned source, the American said:
"We had a decent run at Racing Point when Lawrence bought the team he wanted success a little bit sooner rather than waiting. He thought uh Martin Whitmarsh could help and I said at the time the Catholic Church can't have two popes.
"I would have been happy to stay there but Martin took away most of my responsibilities and that was a tough thing for me to face and I left to go to Alpine." (3:00)
Under the leadership of Martin Whitmarsh and Mike Krack, the Silverstone-based outfit made a quick start to the 2023 season, where they fought for podiums regularly in the first half of the year.
However, since the mid-season break last year, they fell back to the midfield and fought for the last few positions in the Top 10. Earlier this year, Whitmarsh too was replaced by Andy Cowell as the Group CEO of Aston Martin heading into the new engine regulations.
