Vettel has until today to return a negative Covid test

Sebastian Vettel is facing a race against time to be fit for Sunday's Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The four-time world champion's Aston Martin team confirmed he has yet to return a negative Covid-19 test after he was ruled out of Formula 1's opener in Bahrain last weekend with the virus.

Nico Hulkenberg, who deputised for the 34-yearold Vettel in Bahrain, is on standby.

Aston Martin will take their final decision before first practice in Jeddah today.

A statement from the British team read: "Sebastian Vettel has not yet returned the required negative Covid test to fly to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

"Nico Hulkenberg will be in Jeddah to deputise for Seb if necessary.

"We will delay our final decision until Friday to provide Seb every opportunity to race."

Although mandatory testing has been scrapped by Formula 1, teams are continuing with the process.

F1 has made it compulsory for all team personnel to be vaccinated this year.

But drivers will still be banned from the paddock if they return a positive test in a country where isolation is not required. It is understood this is unlikely to change in the immediate future.

In Vettel's absence, Aston Martin endured a poor start to the new campaign. Lance Stroll finished 12th with Hulkenberg 17th and last.

Meanwhile, Aston Martin have revealed they are using less paint for their livery in order to shave vital grams off the AMR22 in an effort to make it quicker. It has looked heavy at corners already this season.

“Weight is a big, big issue,” chief technical officer Andy Green explained told Motorsport.com.

“These cars are heavy by regulation, and to get down to the regulation weight, it’s a challenge. We went through the whole car from front to back, and we took paint off wherever we could. I think in total we saved about 350 grams.”