After missing the Bahrain Grand Prix last week, Sebastian Vettel remains an unknown for the second round of the season, scheduled this weekend in Saudi Arabia.
Affected by COVID-19 and with symptoms, Sebastian Vettel was unable to compete during the first test of the year. However, the four-time world champion has seen his condition improve in recent days, and even took part -from a distance- in the briefing of the last race with Aston Martin. However, the pilot continues to test positive for coronavirus, which prevents him from joining the Formula 1 paddock in Jeddah for the time being.
During the morning of Thursday, the English team took stock of the situation and postponed the final decision until Friday. This means that if the German driver has not submitted a negative COVID-19 test by then, he will be replaced, again, by his compatriot Nico Hülkenberg.
Current protocols prevent a driver from attending a grand prix if they test positive for COVID-19, as has been the case since the start of the pandemic, so health regulations remain unchanged to date.
“Sebastian Vettel has yet to submit the negative test result required to fly and participate in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix,” Aston Martin said in the statement. “Nico Hülkenberg will be in Jeddah to replace Seb if necessary. We will delay our final decision until Friday, to give Seb every opportunity to compete.”
Aston Martin had a particularly difficult first race at Sakhir, failing to score a single point: Lance Stroll finished 12th in the race while Nico Hülkenberg finished 17th, the last of the drivers to finish.
Mike Krack, for his part, expressed that this sudden change “came at a critical moment”, since Aston Martin “had no references at all”.
“If you change the driver at the last moment, it leaves you with only one reference, which is quite dangerous,” said the Silverstone team’s chief executive.
“It’s difficult for Nico [Hülkenberg] to jump like that, because he doesn’t have references either, since he wasn’t in the tests. So we lack a bit of light in that sense,” he concluded.
