Vettel 'now on back foot' in 2022, admits Hulkenberg

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Fresh from another two-race stint as Aston Martin super-sub. Nico Hulkenberg admitted that his recall to active Formula 1 duty would inevitably have consequences for the man he temporarily replaced on the grid.

Sebastian Vettel returned a positive coronavirus test just days before the Bahrain Grand Prix, the first race of the 2022 world championship. He was still not back to full health in time to take part in the Saudi Arabian race a week later.

Vettel has now returned a negative COVID test and will be back in action for the third race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, meaning that Hulkenberg will return to reserve status for the team.

Read also: Former F1 team boss: Aston 'going nowhere' under Stroll

With no prior experience of racing the AMR22 - and with this year's cars substantially changed under new rules and regulations introduced over the winter - Hulkenberg scored no points in his two outings, finishing 17th in Bahrain..

He did finish ahead of team mate Lance Stroll in Jeddah in 12th place, but that was after the Canadian had a late collision with the Williams of Alex Albon. He admitted afterwards that the new car had taken some getting used to.

He pointed out this week that having missed out on the experience of the first two races, Vettel would now inevitably be behind Aston's rivals and playing catch-up over the next few outings.

“Obviously he’s lacking those two races so he will start a little bit on the back foot,” said Hulkenberg. "But I think, you know, he’s very skilled [and] very talented.

“I think he’s capable of catching up," he added. "But for sure, he has a bit more work to do and he needs to dig a little bit deeper to try and make up for it.”

Aston Martin is one of only two teams not to have scored points so far in 2022, along with Williams. Both squads appear to have fallen back over the winter, in common with their Mercedes-powered team mates.

As well as Vettel's COVID crisis, Aston has also been set back by major changes to the team's structure at the start of the year with the exit of team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

Prior to his resignation, Szafnauer had guided the team's rise through its various incarnations as Force India and Racing Point. He has since been replaced by Mike Krack reporting to team owner Lawrence Stroll, father of driver Lance.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.