Aston Martin Racing team principal Otmar Szafnauer has discussed how four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel has changed the team’s way of working.

The German who arrived at the Silverstone based team after departing Ferrari in the winter of 2020 had a mixed start to life at Aston Martin, with the first four races of the season seeing Vettel fail to score any points. 

However, Vettel rebounded by scoring his first points of the season after finishing fifth in Monte Carlo, with the four-time World Champion finishing second in Baku after a superb drive from 11th on the grid, which saw Vettel make use of fresher tyres to grab his 122nd podium in Formula 1.

Vettel’s impact on the team has gone well beyond the track, with Szafnauer revealing to Formula 1.com how the German has changed the team’s way of conducting team briefings whilst building a good dynamic with teammate Lance Stroll.

“Sebastian has expanded the way we do things, Lance isn’t a rookie, he’s been with us for a while now, and there’s a good dynamic between Lance and Sebastian. Sebastian does have more experience and the way we go about debriefs now has changed a bit and not just Lance but the entire team have embraced that.”

Szafnauer also talked of how Vettel has got more comfortable with the team’s AMR21 after a troublesome pre-season testing, which saw the team struggling with technical gremlins and subsequently limited Vettel’s running.

“He was getting better and better before Monaco , I shouldn’t say better and better, but more and more comfortable in the car, and I think it’s a progression of little steps. It’s a logical incrementalism to get to the peak.

“We’ve all improved in our process a little bit, in the way we go about the weekend,” he added. “We’re all learning, Lance too, and we’ll lift the team together.”