Aston Martin are next to the Alpine F1 Team the two new teams in the Formula 1 season 2021. After Lawrence Stroll saved the Silverstone-based team in 2017 and decided to rename Force India to Racing Point, Canadian businessman and father of Lance Stroll he again to rename the team and name it Aston Martin after acquiring a minority stake in the British automaker. Renamed Racing Point in its green British racing livery has certainly caught the imagination of F1 fans around the world.
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First use in Formula 1 (1959-1960)
To say that Aston Martin’s first F1 outing was a disaster would be a massive understatement. The team entered the 1959 and 1960 seasons under the name David Brown Corporation. After some delays in developing its first Formula 1 car, the DBR4, the team was only able to contest four races in the 1959 season and made its debut at this year’s Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort.
Her best performance in an otherwise poor season came in the following race at the Aintree Circuit at the British Grand Prix. Roy Salvadori qualified second on the grid and set a lap time that was identical to that of eventual world champion from 1959, Jack Brabham. However, Salvadori would only achieve sixth place in the race.
Things got worse for the team the following season. Their new challenger, the DBR5, could only take part in one race at Silverstone. A single 11th place was all the team could achieve before finalizing their F1 project.
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Second stint (2021-)
After five years as the main sponsor of Red Bull Racing, Aston Martin is returning to Formula 1 after 61 years as a customer team, made possible by extensive investments by Lawrence Stroll and his consortium. However, the team, which is a renamed Racing Point team and continues to be powered by Mercedes engines, decided to make a significant change in personnel ahead of the debut season. Four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, who was out of contract with Ferrari, was brought in to replace Sergio Perez, who moved to Red Bull in 2021, which underscores Aston Martin’s determination.
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Other than that, the staff hasn’t changed since her time as Racing Point. The Romanian Otmar Szafnauer is still team principal of the team he joined in 2009, when the team from Silverstone was called Force India. British engineer Andrew Green will continue to be the technical director of the team he joined in 1991 when it was named Jordan.
Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel in their new overalls. Photo: Twitter.com/Aston Martin
Aston Martin in WEC
Aston Martin has a rich history in endurance racing and Le Mans in particular. In 1959, the year they also debuted in Formula 1, they managed to win their first 24 Hours of Le Mans with the same two drivers who drove for them in F1; Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori. They fielded two cars in the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours and finished 1-2.
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In 2004, the Aston Martin Racing Team was created as factory equipment for the British automaker. After taking part in the Le Mans 24 Hours for the first time in 2005, they only had to wait two years for their first Le Mans victory in the GT1 category. Aston Martin Racing won Le Mans again in 2008, with two victories in a row for the DBR9 and its drivers David Brabham (son of three-time F1 world champion Jack Brabham) and Darren Turner.
Aston Martin Racing had to wait another six years for their next Le Mans win after an all-Danish driver line-up crossed the finish line first in the GTE AM category. The team won its first FIA World Endurance Championship in 2016, followed by its final championship in 2020, before deciding to give up endurance racing and focus on Formula 1.
After a strong 2020 season that included a pole position for Lance Stroll in Turkey and a race win for Sergio Perez in Sakhir, Aston Martin is hoping for a strong season with P3 in the F1 Constructors’ Championship as an “unofficial target”. And with a four-time world champion at the wheel, Aston Martin certainly has all the ingredients to be the “best of the others” in the 2021 Formula 1 season, if not one of the best.
Edited by Sandeep Banerjee
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