Aston Martin performance 'embarrassing', says Ralf Schumacher

The Aston Martin team is "embarrassing itself" this season says former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher who criticized the team for its mediocre level of performance.

Team Silverstone has undoubtedly taken a step back this year compared to 2020 when it finished P4 in the Constructors' standings.

Aston Martin currently sits seventh in the championship, in the second tier of the mid-field pack, in between AlphaTauri and Williams.

Earlier this season, Lawrence Stroll's outfit argued that this year's aerodynamic rule changes had negatively impacted the low-rake design of its AMR01 machine, which forced it to start 2021 on the back foot.

But the team's engineers led by tech boss Andy Green and performance director Tom McCullough have worked hard to try and extract more from their car and boost its performance.

However, despite the team's best efforts and the valuable contribution and experience of its star recruit, Sebastian Vettel, only marginal gains have been achieved. And Schumacher is clearly not impressed.

"I refuse to believe Sebastian has embarrassed himself," the German told Sky Germany, commenting on Aston's disappointing results. "It’s more the team that is embarrassing itself at the moment.

"The package is just not going in the right direction and doesn’t seem to be able to develop, although they have a very close co-operation with Mercedes.

"Of course, the fact they have taken on a lot of new staff could stand in the way."

• Read also: Aston success 'not about one person' but teamwork – Stroll

Schumacher cast a bleak outlook for the emerald green team for the remainder of the season.

"I don’t think we will see Sebastian in the top 10 very often, unless accidents at the start happen like in Budapest," added the six-time Grand Prix winner.

"They are definitely behind McLaren and Ferrari, and even AlphaTauri are in front, so it will be a tough end of the year for Vettel."

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