It is a new team and new power unit for Sebastian Vettel in the new year, who will drive for Aston Martin in the 2021 season. The German put his AMR21 through its paces on a dusty Bahrain International Circuit with pre-season testing commencing on Friday.

Vettel clocked in 51 laps with a personal best time of 1:33.742, a touch over 3 seconds behind pack leader Max Verstappen. But on the first day of testing, the 33-year-old primarily invested his focus on getting to grips with Mercedes’ power.

Mercedes possess the best engines on the F1 grid, and so their customer teams will only benefit from it. Speaking after the testing session, Vettel briefly touched upon his first official experience of driving with Mercedes power.

Everybody knows the strength of the Mercedes engine, said Sebastian Vettel

Vettel stated, “Well, I mean, it’s obviously different, it’s operated differently. So a lot of dry stuff just in terms of operations and running and so on is different than what I am used to. So, that’s mostly for me to get up to speed.”

In his 14 seasons in Formula 1, Vettel has predominantly only driven with Renault and Ferrari power in his previous teams. So, in his career’s peak years, he will have to get used to efficiently running the defending champions’ engine now.

“But obviously, in terms of performance, everybody knows the strength of the Mercedes engine. So on that front, I don’t think we have an excuse, so looking forward to that,” concluded Vettel.

Vettel will hope effective testing lays down the foundation for a good start to the season

All drivers will hope to gain greater familiarity with their respective machinery over this current three-day testing period. Vettel will not be any different, and he would certainly know the importance of having refined outings in this initial duration.

Vettel was by no means fully up to scratch on his first day out on track after three months. But his experience and adaptive nature mean he will quickly eliminate the current choppiness to a great extent.

Therefore, the objectives remain the same for Vettel and his new team – race wins and podiums. Given his drive to excel, he would internally believe that a good start to the season is well on the horizon.

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