The race endured by Sebastian Vettel, in the season opener at Spielberg, was one to forget. The 4-time world champion struggled all weekend and was knocked out in Q2.
Starting the race in P11, things didn’t get much better. Vettel dropped to 15th on the grid, after spinning out while chasing Carlos Sainz. He later revealed that he wasn’t too happy with the SF1000.
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Vettel was obviously displeased with his race and will be looking to do much better in the next Grand Prix. But former Ferrari F1 driver Gerhard Berger reckons he knows the reason behind Vettel’s woes.
Gerhard Berger thinks that Sebastian Vettel doesn’t perform well under pressure
Berger was the latest driver to appear on the F1 Nation podcast. Talking about Vettel and his performance in Austria, he said, “It clearly didn’t look good from outside (Vettel’s performance in Austria). We’ve seen Sebastian is extremely strong, I rate him (highly), he’s a four-time world champion. He did unbelievable good races, he’s a clever guy and so on.
“But when he has pressure, he doesn’t react always very good. We’ve seen this already with Daniel at the time (with Red Bull). We’ve seen this last year when things didn’t work out. It looks like he has started this season also on the wrong feet.”
Berger thinks that the only way Vettel can recreate his form from the glory days is when the environment is centered around him. Berger said, “Sebastian is working to the optimum when his environment is all set for himself. He doesn’t like to have competition in the team.
“He deals with it, but he gets the last two-tenths out of him when he feels that he is the king of the team. This he cannot find, in this stage at Ferrari.”
However, it’s unlikely that the pressure on Vettel is going to decrease anytime soon. With Fernando Alonso already confirmed by Renault for 2021, the number of available seats left in F1 are dwindling.
The German would have to put in some other-worldly performances if he intends to get a drive at Mercedes or Red Bull next year.
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