Aston Martin has dismissed a report that its 2022 challenger will not be on track at the Spanish test, saying “we will be ready”.
Team owner Lawrence Stroll and his drivers Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll finished last season with a disappointing seventh place in the constructors’ standings in their first season under the Aston Martin brand and are hoping this year’s all-new cars will see Aston Martin at least in contention for the best from the rest
But according to website thejudge13, all is not well with the former Racing Point team.
After Stroll bought the team in 2018 and invested heavily, the Aston Martin workforce has grown – but even that is a problem.
There is said to be “deepening resentment” at the factory following the departure of Otmar Szafnauer, who was replaced by Mike Krack, while a source told the publication that the “humble but efficient workforce” has grown into a “far larger entity”. be of what appear to be ‘headless chickens'”.
And that has affected the development of the team’s 2022 car.
With Formula 1 racing with brand new cars this year, teams have spent much of last season using all their resources to understand the new rules.
But Judge13’s source claims that the Aston Martin F1 car is “miles behind, to the point when it does its first test in Barcelona on February 23, everyone will be so amazed you’ll hear the cheers from space will.”
However, this was denied by Aston Martin.
A spokesman for the team told Speedweek.com: “Work on our 2022 car is progressing well and we will be ready for the first winter test in Barcelona.”
The new cars are expected to hit the track on February 23, with the opening group shakedown taking place behind closed doors at the Circuit de Catalunya.
This three-day outing will be followed by the first and only official pre-season test, which will be held from March 10-12 at Sakhir Circuit in Bahrain.
A week later the season begins with the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Andy Green, the team’s technical lead, believes that Aston Martin’s decision to clone Mercedes cars in 2020 and 2021 as a continuation of the previous season has proven to be a long-term benefit for the Silverstone team.
“It definitely opened our eyes to new ways of working – new concepts, new ideas,” he told The Race.
“And it has allowed that thinking to be implemented to some extent on the 21-inch car, but definitely on the 2022 car.
“We looked at the car and found out why this car was significantly faster than all the others,” he added.
“We learned it ourselves. There is no shortcut for it. It’s not a copy, it’s the development of a solution where you have a rough idea of what you think the answer is, but you have yet to get there and it takes a lot of development and a lot of work to understand. “
