Aston Martin plays down Schumacher rumour

Aston Martin’s boss says he is "very, very confident" that quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel will stay with the team for 2023.

Drivers including Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri are being linked with the German’s seat, given a perceived lack of progress at the Silverstone based outfit and Vettel’s potentially waning motivation.

But Mike Krack says he sees no sign of the 34-year-old hanging up his helmet.

"If you see him in a debrief or on the phone, the way he gets involved - nobody drives like that who doesn’t want to drive," the Aston Martin team principal told n-tv.

"Nobody acts like that who doesn’t want to drive," he added.

Krack says Vettel at Monaco was a perfect illustration of this.

"It was a top performance from the first lap onwards," he said, adding that Aston Martin’s goal for the rest of 2022 is to create the conditions so that Vettel "can use his talent".

He says there is no deadline by which Vettel needs to sign a new deal.

"When you have someone like Sebastian, you have to try to keep him," said Krack, a fellow German. "It’s a mixture of extreme driving quality, experience and a very positive person who helps us progress."

He said the team is working on making the car and team better in order to convince Vettel, and "We don’t need to push him".

Krack also seemed to dismiss rumours Mick Schumacher could be Vettel’s successor in green.

"We clearly have our way that we want to continue with Sebastian," he said when asked about the struggling Haas driver. "We’ll see about everything else at a later date."

Krack says Aston Martin has an eye on every F1 driver including Schumacher, who he has is "having a difficult time" at present.

"But I don’t know enough about the details of his team and environment to judge."