Ralf Schumacher has criticised Sebastian Vettel for his way of handling mistakes after the Aston Martin driver caused a collision during the Bahrain Grand Prix. Vettel suffered a difficult debut with his new team over the weekend. The German received a penalty in the race after colliding with Esteban Ocon's Alpine, and immediately after the incident was heard questioning Ocon's move over the radio, though it was later revealed that he had apologised to the Frenchman after the event. Schumacher was unimpressed with Vettel's immediate reaction to his error though. "During the [pre-season] tests a fortnight ago, technical problems hampered his 'restart' in the new team," Schumacher explained in his Sky Sports column. "But in the race Sebastian made mistakes himself. "What bothers me most is the way he deals with it: when he hit the rear of Esteban Ocon on lap 44, he immediately complained over the radio about Ocon's supposed lane change. But if you look at the footage, it's clear that this is 100 per cent Vettel's driving mistake." Schumacher believes that Vettel needs to analyse what is going wrong after making similar mistakes during the 2020 F1 season. "Why do such mistakes happen? After the race, he apologised to Ocon, but the question remains why such mistakes keep happening to Sebastian. With his experience, he should be able to assess such situations better, and he has to question himself." Despite this, Schumacher hopes that the mood will remain positive at Aston Martin, who Vettel has joined after six years at Ferrari: "I don't think we have to worry about the mood at Aston Martin yet. The relationship is still too fresh for that. Of course, after further negative experiences, this could change at some point." Vettel finished the Bahrain Grand Prix down in 15th place, whilst teammate Lance Stroll secured the last points-paying position in 10th.
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