Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko says it’s a sorry sight to see four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel currently reduced to making up the numbers with Aston Martin.
Vettel kicked off his 2022 campaign in Melbourne after missing the first two races of the season due to Covid.
But it was a messy debut for the German whose weekend at Albert Park was dogged by technical issues impacting his AMR22 and a pair of crashes in qualifying and on race day.
One could assume that Vettel's motivation is slowly but surely eroding on the back of Aston Martin's underperformance.
But Marko reckons his former driver, who won all four of his world titles with Red Bull, will take the pain rather than walk away on a whim. However, the Austrian admitted that Aston needs to raise its game sooner rather than later.
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"Basically, quitting in the middle of the season doesn't fit the strong character that Sebastian is," Marko told F1-Insider.
"But there should be an improvement from the team soon, otherwise it will become increasingly difficult to stay motivated.
"In any case, it hurts my soul to see a four-time world champion in such a situation."
Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll made clear from the outset in 2021 that his team is being managed according to a five-year plan that is destined to make Team Silverstone a championship contender by 2025.
But Aston's grim start to its season is a direct reflection of its new-generation car's poor performance, and such a deficit certainly won't help the team adhere to Stroll's ambitious road map which also includes the building of a new state-of-the-art factory, which is well underway, and a recruitment spree that has also been in full swing since last year.
Looking from afar, Marko suggests that while Aston Martin resides on a solid financial foundation, it appears to lack the "cohesion and team spirit" that are vital ingredients to carry an F1 team forward.
"It's still a team sport," replied Marko when asked to comment on Aston's struggles. "You need team spirit and cohesion.
"That's why we were able to keep our important people on board for a very long time, despite many poaching attempts, even if some of those attempts by Aston Martin were successful.
"But it's no use just poaching individual people and then believing you'll be successful."
Marko's comment alluded to former Red Bull head of aero Dan Fallows moving to Aston as the outfit's technical director.
Asked if Aston Martin had poached the wrong individuals, a coy Marko said: "I'd rather not comment on that".
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