Before the season began it didn’t seem likely Sebastian Vettel’s 15th full season in Formula 1 would be his last. But although the four-time world champion bade farewell to F1 with his only season without a podium, he also showed flashes of the brilliance that help him capture those titles.
Vettel’s Aston Martin team may have been the quickest to get their new 2022 car from the factory to the circuit before pre-season testing officially began, but Vettel had to wait longer than his peers for his season to begin. A positive Covid test days before the season was due to begin in Bahrain meant Vettel could only watch the opening two races in isolation – not that he missed much as far as Aston Martin were concerned.
As Formula 1 returned to Melbourne, Vettel reappeared in the paddock. But however eager he may have been to make up for lost time, his first weekend of the year was among the worst – arguably the worst – any driver had all season. As compromised as he was from a power unit problem robbing him of track time in practice, he did himself no favours crashing on his first timed lap in practice.
He only managed to get any lap in qualifying at all thanks to his team mate Lance Stroll causing the Aston Martin mechanics even more work to do by hitting Nicholas Latifi. Then on Sunday, Vettel threw away his team’s tireless efforts by running off track early in the race, then crashing out of it entirely laps later.
After the poorest possible start to the season, Vettel went a long way towards repaying his team in Imola. He put Aston Martin into Q3 for the first time in qualifying but sank down the order to 13th in the sprint race. But after navigating through a slightly chaotic start, Vettel drove hard to keep himself in contention for the points, eventually kicking off Aston Martin’s tally for the year with a well-deserved eighth place.
He should have scored again in Miami but after being forced to start from the pit lane due to a fuel technicality, he was on course for another top ten before an awkward clash with Mick Schumacher put paid to any hopes of that.
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