Aston Martin gearbox issue leaves Sebastian Vettel concerned by lack of productivity

Aston Martin

Aston Martin gearbox issue leaves Vettel concerned by lack of productivity

Vettel completed only 10 laps in the morning of day two

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Saturday 13 March 2021 14:29

Sebastian Vettel has bemoaned Aston Martin's gearbox problem that reduced his running in the morning session of the second day at the Bahrain pre-season test to just 10 laps.

The team had to complete a change of what is a Mercedes gearbox before sending the German out at the end of the session, as the works team did on Friday for Valtteri Bottas.

Vettel, who made the switch to the team for this season, was disgruntled by the lack of productivity during his stint.

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"The last 25 hours have been certainly very busy for myself, for everyone in the garage, for the whole team," said Vettel.

"Unfortunately, we didn’t have a very productive morning. We had an issue with the gearbox and had to change it and that cost quite a bit of time.

“That is what happened and unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of laps in so this morning was not of great use in terms of track time."

Aston Martin's previous iteration of Racing Point finished fourth in the constructors' championship last season after a year-long battle with McLaren and Renault, now Alpine, for third spot.

Vettel believes the AMR21 has shown positive signs when he has been on track but warned it would take more time to become accustomed to his new machinery.

“Yesterday was very interesting," he added. "I think the car feels very promising but there are still a lot of things that I need to get used to.

"The car, obviously, is different to what I ran and it is a different power unit as well so everything feels a little different and takes a bit of getting used to.”