Aston Martin returns to Formula 1 for the first time in over 60 years in 2021 with a rebranding of the Racing Point team.
The Aston Martin team, which is officially known as the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula 1 Team thanks to a sponsorship agreement with the IT service provider Cognizant, presented its new racing car on Wednesday. Alfa Romeo, Alpine, McLaren and Mercedes-Benz AMG also showed their new cars.
Aston Martin’s car is called AMR21 and is a further development of Racing Point’s RP20 from last season. Of course it is decorated in green. There are also some pink accents to highlight sponsorship from water technology company BWT.
2021 Aston Martin AMR21 Formula 1 racing car
The AMR21 is powered by Mercedes-Benz AMG and reflects a strategy that Aston Martin is also pursuing for some of its road vehicles. The drive train of the AMR21 consists of a 1.6 liter turbocharged V-6 that works with two motor-generators, one integrated into the turbocharger and the other integrated into the engine in the main drive train.
Confirmed drivers are the four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll. Stroll’s father, Lawrence Stroll, is both chairman of Aston Martin and the Aston Martin F1 team. Otmar Szafnauer has been appointed CEO and team leader of the team.
The AMR21 will be stretching its legs for the first time at a promotional event taking place on Thursday at the Silverstone Circuit in the UK, where the Aston Martin F1 team is located. The team is using the previous Racing Point dig sites, but will move to the same location in mid-2022 to a new 200,000-square-foot facility that is under construction.
Lance Stroll (left) and Sebastian Vettel
Pre-season testing is scheduled for March 12-14 in Bahrain ahead of the Season Inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix on March 28th. The season was supposed to start with the Australian Grand Prix as always, but due to the restrictions of Covid-19 the Australian race was postponed until November.
Aston Martin’s first and only stint in F1 began in 1959 and ended the following year. The team competed in the DBR4 race car (and later the DBR5), listing Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori as drivers. The team had only five starts in the two years of competition and eventually pulled back to focus on sports car racing after scoring no points.
Aston Martin announced last December that it was leaving the World Endurance Championship, in which it had competed in the GTE class with a racing car based on its Vantage sports car. This means the automaker will no longer compete in sports car racing, although it will continue to build Vantage-based racing cars for customer teams.
The post First Aston Martin F1 car unveiled in 60 years first appeared on monter-une-startup.
