Vettel plays down role in poaching staff

Sebastian Vettel has played down his role in wooing yet another senior Red Bull chief to Aston Martin.

Just a week ago, the rapidly-expanding Aston Martin announced that Red Bull’s aerodynamics boss Dan Fallows has signed up for the future.

And now, Andrew Alessi - who also worked with Vettel in the past as a senior member of Red Bull’s aerodynamics team - is following Fallows to Silverstone.

Quadruple world champion Vettel, 33, denied that he was the key to the defections.

"I’m part of the team, but my job is to drive the car and provide feedback to the engineers, not to recruit personnel," said the German.

"Since I joined Aston Martin, the team has been steadily increasing its resources and it’s nice to see new people come to us.

"I worked with both Andrew and Dan, but it was a long time ago - it’s amazing how much time has passed since then," Vettel explained.

"We have also invited and got a lot of other people whose names are maybe not so well known. But with each new employee, Aston Martin becomes stronger."

One interpretation, however, is that even if Vettel wasn’t centrally involved in the recruitments, his presence made it easy for them to make the switch.

"I don’t think they came here because of me," Vettel insists. "After all, I was at Ferrari for several years after I was with Red Bull.

"For Andrew and Dan, the transition should be quite nice because they’re changing from one British team to another. They don’t have to leave the country they live in.

"Moving to a new job in the same region is always easier than leaving for a whole new country," he said.