Vettel's Australia F1 crashes "not normal" - Aston Martin

Vettel returned to the cockpit in Melbourne after missing the opening two races of the season due to COVID-19, with Nico Hulkenberg stepping in as his replacement.

PLUS: The highs and lows of being F1's latest supersub

Four-time world champion Vettel crashed in FP3, compromising his qualifying session, and then went off again early in the race. His team-mate mate Lance Stroll also hit the barriers in FP3.

Krack insists the incidents were not due to the German missing the previous races and thus lacking cockpit time, and admits the team has to take responsibility for the behaviour of the car underneath him.

“I'm happy that Seb is fine first of all, after all these incidents,” said Krack.

“But I think if someone like him, a four-time world champion, has these issues that he was having this weekend, this is not down to not driving - because he has driven the car.

“This is something that we need to really look at, what car we provide him, what feedback he gets from the car. Because you will agree with me that him being off so much as he has been this weekend is not normal.

“And I do not think that this is related to having missed two races. I mean, he has been a multiple winner in Melbourne. He knows where he is here. He has had some tests with the car.

"So I think it will be really easy to say, ‘Ah, he was not there for two weekends.’ A driver of that class, we really need to check what tool we are giving him.”

Marshals assist Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR22, after he stops on track during FP1

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Krack says that Aston Martin knows why it has not been competitive so far this year, with the team languishing in 10th place in the championship having failed to score a point in 2022.

“