Aston Martin confirms Vettel and Stroll for 2022 Formula 1 line-up

F1

Aston Martin is sticking with both Vettel and Stroll for the 2022 Formula 1 season

Sebastian Vettel, 2021 Aston Martin

Vettel will return with Aston Martin next season

Aston Martin

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Sebastian Vettel will remain a part of the Aston Martin Formula 1 line-up alongside Lance Stroll for the 2022 season the team has confirmed.

Aston Martin will be one of six so far confirmed to be keeping the same drivers as the current season, with Haas and Alfa Romeo the only teams yet to confirm their intentions for their driver pairings next year.

While Stroll was always unlikely to leave the team, an option in Vettel’s contract for a further year meant the four-time champion could have theoretically walked away from F1 at the end of the season. Instead, Vettel will line up on the grid in 2022 for his 15 full-time season and 16th overall.

“I am really looking forward to racing the new generation of Formula 1 cars,” Vettel said. “Their look is very different and the new technical regulations should give us cars that can race much more closely than recently.

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“More exciting racing will be great for the drivers as well as for the fans. The changes are so big that every team will be starting from a new beginning, so it will be a great opportunity for us at Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team. I believe in the strength of our new growing team, so I am already looking forward to 2022.”

Vettel has scored the best results in what has been a difficult maiden season for the team after promising signs in 2020 under its former Racing Point guise.

Second for Vettel at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix has been the stand-out performance so far for the British outfit, though he repeated that feat in Hungary but lost the result due to a disqualification for not having enough fuel in the car post-race.

Stroll has scored points in half of the races so far this season, a better conversion rate than team-mate Vettel, but owner Lawrence Stroll believes the team has been majorly disadvantaged by the new rules introduced for 2021 to slow cars down.

“The first ever season for Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team got off to a disappointing start, owing to the regulatory changes over the winter that disadvantaged the two teams whose cars utilise a low-rake aero philosophy,” he said.

“But we have made good progress over the past few months, and both Lance and Sebastian have delivered some excellent performances. They have had more than their fair share of bad luck, but in 2022 we are delighted to be continuing with such an excellent blend of youthful talent and experienced expertise.”

Aston Martin currently sits in a lonely seventh place in the constructors’ standings, some 25 points behind AlphaTauri ahead but some 37 clear of Williams.

Team principal Otmar Szafnauer believes the team is making the right steps for the future and the next set of F1 regulations that will be introduced for 2022.

Szafnauer said that the experience of a multiple-time world champion and potential of Stroll means that the team has set itself up well for the next era of Formula 1.

“Lance is one of the most gifted drivers in modern Formula One, and to that raw talent he is now adding serious racecraft,” Szafnauer said.

“A four-time world champion, having driven 271 Grands Prix, of which he has won 53, Sebastian is also a massive asset to our team, and next year we expect both of them to race well in what will be a very different formula from the current one.

“We never under-estimate our opposition, so we do not intend to over-promise, but we know that Lance and Sebastian will get the very best from the tools we will put at their disposal.”