Aston Martin team boss Otmar Szafnauer says it's "early days" still for Sebastian Vettel who endured a messy first race with his new team in Bahrain.
On Saturday, Vettel failed to exit Q1 after two yellow flags undermined his qualifying session. But the German was subsequently hit with three penalty points and a grid demotion to P20 for failing to respect double-yellow flags waved at Sakhir's Turn 1.
On Sunday evening, from last on the grid, Vettel battled his way through the midfield but clumsily hit the Alpine of Esteban Ocon while braking for Turn 1, a move that yielded two more penalty points for the four-time world champion who eventually crossed the checkered flag next to last in 15th position.
Despite his driver's disappointing start with Team Silverstone, Szafnauer vowed to remain positive.
©AstonMartin
"It wasn't the best race but if you look at the positives, he had to start last he was running in the top 10 for a while and felt good in the car," said the Aston boss.
"Watching it from the pit wall his lap times were not that dissimilar to Lance who's been driving here for a while and knows the car well and ended up finishing in a relatively decent position."
- Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2021 Bahrain GP
Szafnauer said that Vettel's integration with his new team and its equipment is still ongoing.
"From car characteristics, powertrain characteristics he's getting to grips to know it and make setup changes that suit him," added the American.
"It's really early days, he's didn't do a lot of laps in winter testing, we only had three days and he seemed to have all the problems. I'm still confident we'll get set there."
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