Sebastian Vettel: Aston Martin give update ahead of Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Aston Martin have revealed that they will wait until Friday before making a call over whether Sebastian Vettel will race for the team or not at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend.

The four-time Formula 1 world champion missed the opening race of the season last time out in Bahrain thanks to a positive covid test, and he found himself staying in Switzerland as the 2022 campaign got underway at the Sakhir circuit.

Indeed, Nico Hulkenberg stood in for Vettel and did a solid job despite having next to no time at all to get up to speed with the car, and he could be required again this weekend to deputise for his compatriot at the Jeddah Street Circuit, with Vettel yet to return a negative test.

A statement on Aston Martin’s official Twitter page read:

“Sebastian Vettel has not yet returned the required negative COVID test to fly to the #SaudiArabiaGP. Nico Hülkenberg will be in Jeddah to deputise for Seb if necessary. We will delay our final decision until Friday to provide Seb every opportunity to race.”

Fair play to Aston for giving it as long as possible before deciding over Seb, as it’s only natural he will want to be racing rather than sitting around watching.

It’s been a far from ideal start to his 2022 season, and he’ll just be itching to get back involved when the time is right.

If he does continue to test positive tomorrow, though, that will obviously rule him out for another weekend and Hulkenberg will step in, though that is not an issue given his quality at the wheel.

The Australian Grand Prix follows this weekend’s race in Saudi, meanwhile, in just over two weeks from now and you would hope by then that Seb will have fully recovered!