Vettel's age will not stop Aston Martin title charge

Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel has insisted his age will not be the deciding factor in whether he becomes Formula 1 champion for a fifth time.

Team owner Lawrence Stroll has indicated his desire for the team - rebranded from Racing Point over the winter - to become world championship contenders, with team principal Otmar Szafnauer putting a three-to-five-year timestamp on any aspirations.

When asked if he would be able to see out such a time period to contend for another title, 33-year-old Vettel replied: “I think I can. Obviously, I am not too old. There are now older drivers joining the grid rather than younger drivers.

“I don’t think it’s an age thing. I just think it’s more of a question of, do you have the team around you?

"Formula 1 has been like this since I can remember and probably before. It is not a secret in the last years that you needed to be in a Mercedes to really fight for the championship.

“I think we were close with Ferrari but never really close enough to have a say in the last two or three races so I don’t think it’s an age thing. I think it’s [another world title] in me.

"It’s been in me and was probably a big relief winning the first championship [in 2010], knowing you can do it and since then I don’t see why it is not there anymore."

F1 sees the biggest change of regulations in modern times next season with a radical new aerodynamic design gracing the grid, aiming to increase competition for race victories and enable closer, wheel-to-wheel racing.

With such a change lying in wait, the German driver, who won his four titles with Red Bull, has theorised the wait for Aston Martin to become a championship-contending entity could be shorter than expected.

“Obviously, it is Formula 1 changing at the same time so maybe - time will tell - you don’t need those three-to-five years anymore," Vettel explained.

"Maybe it will shrink and that is the goal for everyone, to be a bit closer to the top and not just be on the podium because you got lucky that the guys at the front retired or crashed, but this time [you earned it] for real.

“We will see how Formula 1 changes in the next years. Age-wise I think I have a long time in me but then it depends, in all honesty, on the circumstances of the sport and how things are going in the near future.”

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