The Formula 1 season had only just begun when Aston Martin filed a complaint: The team felt they were severely disadvantaged by the new aero rules and claimed that the vote on the rule change was not fair. Not long after that, team boss Otmar Szafnauer gave in a little, but it seems that he is not ready to give up yet. This is reinforced by the suggestion that Mercedes support the team in their behind-the-scenes protest.
In Imola, Szafnauer seemed satisfied with the FIA’s explanation of the voting process. However, opposite stories surfaced again in Portimao, as reported by Auto, Motor und Sport: Aston Martin would still claim that the rule changes put its cars at a disadvantage over the teams with a higher computational concept.
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Montoya is not a fan of track restrictions: “It only makes Red Bull angrier”
Aston Martin still wants to reverse the rule change
The rule itself cannot be challenged; A team only has a chance if it can demonstrate that the decision-making process did not follow the correct procedure. This appears to be the strategy Aston Martin has chosen to reverse the rule. The rule change was reportedly voted unanimously, but Aston Martin claim they did not vote in favor and McLaren and Mercedes also voted against.
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“Verstappen and Red Bull Racing have shown that they are more than competitive”
McLaren doesn’t want to know about it, and the question is how much sense it would have made. The rule was introduced for safety reasons, as the Pirelli tires could not handle the high downforce. At that time, the teams unanimously agreed to this rationale.
Now owner Lawrence Stroll apparently wants to increase the pressure and for this he has allegedly enlisted the help of Toto Wolff. With the help of Mercedes, he hopes to put pressure on the FIA to reverse the rule change. However, with Mercedes still winning races with the same low-rake concept, it will be a tough case for Aston Martin.
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