Aston Martin dismiss Sebastian Vettel "farewell tour"

Aston Martin

Aston Martin dismiss Vettel "farewell tour"

Vettel will retire at the end of the season

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Sunday 18 September 2022 12:30

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Mike Krack has insisted Aston Martin is not embarking on a Sebastian Vettel "farewell tour" over the last six races.

Vettel announced ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix that this season would be his last after joining the F1 grid in 2007.

The four-time champion has endured a testing two seasons with the Silverstone-based team, with his recent retirement in the Italian GP his third of the season, in addition to the two races he missed at the start of the season through Covid.

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Asked how disappointing it was for the German to have finished his European F1 career with a retirement, Krack replied: "We are not really on the farewell tour, so we are not thinking 'this is the last Monza, this is the last European'.

"We will have a farewell in Abu Dhabi but until then, it is not in our minds that we go around the world and it is always the last, not at all."

Krack raises Vettel point hopes

Aston Martin struggled for pace across the weekend at Monza, with Vettel claiming the atmosphere from the crowd was the only positive.

Raising hopes for better fortunes to come, Krack said: "We have a couple of races to come where the car will be more competitive.

"We have seen in Zandvoort the potential to go to Q3 was there. Sebastian had an issue in turn 13 that prevented him from moving forward. We had the potential and this is also encouraging for the races to come.

"Singapore has always been a track where he has performed very well, so we have high hopes we will achieve something good with him until the end."