Aston Martin detail reasons behind Vettel retention

Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer has revealed a list of reasons as to why Sebastian Vettel has been retained for the 2022 F1 season.

In an unsurprising move by the team, Vettel and team-mate Lance Stroll will continue as Aston Martin's pairing for a second year.

In the build-up to the announcement, doubts had emerged around Vettel due to option clauses on both sides in the multi-year deal he signed upon initially joining the team at the end of last year.

With Vettel now on board, Szafnauer has highlighted why the four-time F1 champion is continuing.

"He is a very principled person, a man of high integrity, which personally I like," said Szafnauer.

"He's not afraid to speak his mind, which I also like.

"He went and did litter picking at Silverstone, which I sometimes do in Oxford myself because I don't like litter.

"So the fact he spent a couple of hours picking up litter in the grandstand, I like that, too.

"He is a generally good guy, he cares about people, and he now cares about the environment, with his litter picking, no plastics.

"So he is a good guy, and we like him.

"On the driving side, he works super hard and he has high expectations of both himself and the team."

As far as Szafnauer is concerned, Vettel remaining with Aston Martin was always on the cards, to such an extent no conversations were had with any other drivers

Szafnauer added: "If there was any doubt in our minds, in July, when all these other people were thinking 'Should I go to Williams or Alfa Romeo', all that kind of stuff, we would have been having those conversations. But we didn't."

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