Vettel motivation questioned at Aston Martin

Sebastian Vettel's level of motivation with Aston Martin has been questioned ahead of his return to F1 racing this weekend in Australia.

Vettel was forced to sit out the opening two grands prix of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia after contracting the coronavirus, forcing the team to draft in reserve Nico Hulkenberg.

In Vettel's absence, the AMR22 has proven to be one of the worst cars of the current field under the new aerodynamic regulations as neither Hulkenberg nor Lance Stroll made it out of Q1 in Bahrain, and only the latter scraped into Q2 in Jeddah.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who knows Vettel well from their time together during the team's title title-winning years in the early 'noughties', has been left wondering as to how inspired the 34-year-old German will be in Australia this weekend and moving forward.

"First, Aston Martin has to build a more competitive car," said Marko to Formel1.de. "Because if you drive outside the points, then the motivation is not the greatest."

Marko has no doubt a motivated Vettel has the ability to fight for a top-three finish, as was the case last year in finishing second in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, similarly in Hungary prior to being disqualified for a fuel irregularity.

But as Marko points out, "Where Aston Martin is at the moment, I don't think the motivation will be too great."

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