Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin Formula 1 driver, has accepted that the collision with Esteban Ocon was probably his mistake.
Earlier, he blamed Alpine’s Formula 1 driver for collision for which he provided explanation. Vettel misjudged Ocon braking which led to collision, where former hit the Frenchman car in the rear.
Both drivers took a hit and were pushed away from the points losing position. Ocon finished 13th while Vettel finished 15th on the grid.
The German racing driver was handed a 10 second penalty by steward. He was also penalized with two penalty points for not adhering to yellow flag regulations during qualifying.
Initially, Vettel blamed Ocon and asked on the team radio, “Why did he move?”
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Post race footage analysis made Vettel to take responsibility of the incident and apology. But he explained what made him blame the Frenchman.
“I thought he would stay right and then when he came back left, he was right ahead of me and I locked, so it was probably my mistake,” Vettel admitted.
“Obviously, I’m a bit sorry for such a bad weekend because I know how much prep goes in before the start of the season and the first race.
“On the other hand, it can only go up from here. As I said, we learned a lot of things so it’s a lot of work ahead of us but it is what it is and we have to tackle it step-by-step.”
Ocon revealed that Vettel came in person to apologize for the accident.
“Unfortunately, the incident with Vettel at the end made us lose a couple of positions but that is how racing is sometimes when you fight so close,” Ocon commented.
“I’ve re-watched the accident just now and he didn’t tell me [about the radio comment]. He came and apologised, and he got the penalty for it so it is all okay.”
Aston Martin, formerly known as Racing Point Formula 1 team, had a disappointing start compared to last year performance. Lance Stroll only managed to score a single point for the team. It appears to be far away from it midfield rivals McLaren, Ferrari and AlphaTauri.
Vettel explained the issues that the Aston Martin faces and that it need fixation to be in the midfield.
He said, “It’s been probably not the best weekend or the weekend we were looking for. But a lot of things that we learned in the race that we need to address. We will see how quickly we can fix them.”
