Following the failures of Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen in Baku, Aston Martin and Red Bull were at the center of controversy over teams that were allegedly under the prescribed minimum pressure.
The FIA and Pirelli then introduced stricter tire operating procedures for the Paul Ricard weekend, along with higher rear minimum pressures.
In the race, Sebastian Vettel and Stroll both drove very long opening stints on the hard tire and finished ninth and tenth, with the Canadian having worked his way up from 19th place on the grid.
Szafnauer says the way the team avoided its rivals’ worst tire problems in France was in line with those who claimed Aston Martin had previously run outside the rules.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “Especially when you know exactly what you’re doing and you follow the rules well so other people who don’t know what you’re doing will blame you.
“Hopefully this will silence them, but I can tell you we’ve never done anything unusual.
“We have always followed both FIA and Pirelli regulations and will continue to do so.”
Long starting stints from low grid positions worked for the team in previous races, and Szafnauer agreed that his tire management skills were simply carried over to the higher starting pressures.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR21
Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images
“Well, we can get it working. And as you have seen, the technical guideline for tires came out, we had to change the way we work, and it didn’t affect our strategy, which just kind of tells you that we stuck to the recipe anyway.
“You just have to know what you’re doing. And we are still working within all parameters. That only happens if you are a little clever with the tire.
“You have to look at some of the other teams that went down because of the technical directive.
“From our qualification we did pretty well to get both of them into the points, which I was hoping for.
“Maybe Seb could have been a bit higher up because it was very close in the end. But we’ll take that, regroup, qualify better next time and drive better.”
The team is still bringing in updates for the car and Szafnauer hopes that the next package for the Styria GP next weekend can be accelerated.
“There are some new parts here, and there are some new parts coming in Austria, hopefully in the first race. I have to see how quickly we can get them ready. They are meant for the second Austrian race, which is likely to be.” the case.”
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