Vettel on track for Aston Martin for the first time, as he and Stroll shakedown AMR21 at Silverstone

Sebastian Vettel got his first taste of what it's like to feel Mercedes power beneath his right foot on Thursday, as he and Aston Martin team mate Lance Stroll conducted a shakedown of the new AMR21 at a wet Silverstone.

A day after the team launched their green machine in a star-studded online event, they made the short hop from their Silverstone factory across the road to the British Grand Prix venue, to put it through an initial 100km on a filming day.

It represented the first time Vettel, who was raring to get behind the wheel, has driven anything other than a Ferrari F1 car since 2014, his last season with Renault-powered Red Bull.

READ MORE: Why Aston Martin’s AMR21 looks like the most evolved 2021 car yet

Aston Martin, appearing in F1 for the first time since 1961, following the rebrand of Racing Point, are targeting a top-three finish in the constructors' standings this season.

We'll get a first taste of where they sit in the pecking order in pre-season testing, which gets underway in Bahrain next Friday.