Vettel starts Aston Martin adventure badly: 'Never been good under pressure'.

Sebastian Vettel has not started the 2021 Formula One season well, with an 18th place in qualifying and an error of judgement in the race. The pressure is mounting on the four-time world champion, and he's not coping with that very well according to Gerhard Berger.

Vettel will be the new driver for Aston Martin in 2021, where he hopes to regain some of his form from the years in which he was world champion with Red Bull Racing. We haven't seen that Vettel for a long time though, as the German also made many mistakes at Ferrari. According to Berger, this all has one reason.

Vettel can't handle pressure

''Sebastian is a four-time world champion and so is one of the top drivers, but he has never been good when under pressure. When Daniel Ricciardo came to Red Bull, he was very strong and put pressure on Sebastian. Seb struggled to deal with that, and the same thing actually happened at Ferrari'', Berger says in the podcast In The Fast Lane.

''It feels now like he is not completely free and relaxed. He wants to prove things, but at the moment that might not be possible with this car. Sometimes you have to take a step back and just relax and the success will come again. He might also get to a point in his career where he doesn't take all the risks to achieve success. Then he makes mistakes, gets criticised and that pressure builds, and he doesn't like that.''

Fastest man at Aston Martin

At Aston Martin, Vettel was supposed to be the figurehead of the new team, but in the first race weekend it was Lance Stroll who had to pull the cart in Bahrain. Vettel didn't make it out of Q1 and in the race he made a big mistake by crashing into Esteban Ocon. According to Berger, however, it has nothing to do with Vettel getting in next to Stroll, who is the son of the owner.

''In the end, it all depends on his performance. If you are slower than your teammate, then the team will pay more attention to him. It's like that in every team. ''It's more of a psychological disadvantage that he's the son of the owner and he's faster now, but at this level you have to be able to deal with strong teammates,'' concludes the Austrian, who saw Vettel enter Formula One while still working for Toro Rosso in 2007 and 2008.