The 18 points lost due to Sebastian Vettel’s exclusion from second place after the FIA had not taken a 1-liter fuel sample could prove to be very expensive, especially since the team’s direct rivals for fifth place in the constructors’ championship, Alpine and AlphaTauri , both were highly gifted positions.
After failing to seek a right to review the original decision, the team has now accepted the losing battle, withdrew their appeal, and put up with the pain of final confirmation of the outcome.
After eleven races into the 2021 season, the team is seventh in the championship with 48 points, behind Alpine with 77 and AlphaTauri with 68. If the original result had held, it would have been a much closer battle, with Alpine on 75 and Aston on 66 , and AlphaTauri to 64.
But even the higher number reflects the slump the Silverstone team has had since last year, when it had already scored 120 points after 11 races as Racing Point.
Team boss Otmar Szafnauer makes no secret of why Aston was lost at the beginning of this season, and attributes this to the changed aero regulations, which are supposed to reduce downforce and take some of the load off Pirelli tires.
The package of changes affected the two low-rake cars, the Mercedes and the Aston, more than their high-rake rivals. Recovering from that first hit required a tremendous amount of effort as a large package of aero updates came through the system and the performance gradually increased.
PLUS: Does Aston have a case in the F1 2021 grand technical series?
“What it really did is that we are working longer and harder on 2021 at the expense of 2022,” Szafnauer told Autosport.
“Also, the freezing has limited the development of the car and the performance of the car, even though you work hard on it.
“For example, we cannot use this to raise the right rear height. And even if you could lift it, it’s years and years and years of development at a high back right height. You can’t do that in months. So yes, that’s the reason why we got 48 points. “
Aston Martin 2022 F1 car
Photo by: Aston Martin
All teams faced the same challenge of juggling the scarce R&D resources in aviation between their projects in 2021 and 2022. In Aston’s case, the initial problems with the current car forced a change of plan – it was a step back to take two forward and that inevitably delayed the final move to 2022.
“There are two things,” says Szafnauer. “First, it’s frozen, and second, the ’22 regulations are so hugely different from anything you add to the car this year won’t apply next year. So you just throw it away. So there is this balancing act between when to stop this year, because we want to finish at least the upper half, but not at the expense of next year.
“All of these factors and inputs go into making decisions about when to quit and when to focus on 2022?”
Will the need to work longer on this year’s car end up being costly?
“It all depends on how steep the development curve is and when it flattens out,” he says. “And that’s really hard to know and hard to predict.”
On the plus side, the touch-up work has steadily increased performance, and cars have been pushing into Q3 more frequently lately. Vettel took his chances when he finished fifth in Monaco, followed by a second in Azerbaijan.
After his disappointing last years at Ferrari, the German driver did a lot to silence the skeptics. The frustration he expressed on the radio after the race in Hungary – after staring at the gearbox of eventual winner Esteban Ocon throughout the Grand Prix – was a sign of how hard he was pushing.
“Seb is brilliant,” says Szafnauer. “He came to us with the idea of enjoying racing again. I talk to him a lot. And I think he’s enjoying the race again, which is great.
“Seb has a mentality that he had when he won all these races and world championships. And that goes for both sides of the garage. Lance and his team learned from Seb and it lifted us. “
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR21, 2nd place, is cheered across the line by his team
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
What did Vettel’s victory experience bring?
“All sorts of little things,” answers Szafnauer. “He had a lot of experience with engine driving behavior with other teams, and that was incorporated into the feedback on the driving behavior of the Mercedes. And they have significantly improved that. And when we have better driving behavior, the drivers tend to develop more confidence, they drive faster.
“Ergonomics, he made the steering wheel better so it’s easier to use.
“Everyone stands behind him. And he did a great job with his team, the mechanics and the people in the factory. And he’s just a real person and a down to earth person. And everyone likes that. So yeah, he did a good job. “
Hiring Vettel was an obvious letter of intent from Aston owner Lawrence Stroll, and it’s already paying off.
“It just shows that we mean business and want to build a team that is capable of winning a world championship, and we are on that path now,” continues Szafnauer. “I mean, it’s Seb, it’s building a new factory, it’s starting a new wind tunnel, it’s hiring people, it’s moving from 550 to 800. All of these elements are just indicators that we’re on the way building a world. “masterful team.”
In the past few months, the team has announced a number of key new hires, notably Dan Fallows (Technical Director), Luca Furbatto (Engineering Director), Andrew Alessi (Head of Technical Operations) and Mark White (Operations Director).
The man with overall responsibility for developing a fast car is former technical director Andy Green, who was bestowed the title of Chief Technical Officer. Green is known to do a lot with limited resources and it will be fascinating to see how he adapts to the transition as the team grows.
Does the future look bright for Aston Martin?
The Aston Martin team on the pit wall
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Aston is currently building a new factory with a new, state-of-the-art wind tunnel at its Silverstone site.
Meanwhile, the team is working flat out on the 2022 project in the current wind tunnel and can only guess how it will fare in comparison to its competitors.
“It’s hard to say because it’s a relative game,” admits Szafnauer. “The regulations are so radically different that it is difficult to know what others will find compared to us. So it’s really, really not easy.
“Every week we find things, every week we find significant improvements or performance in the tunnel. I don’t know what the others find and how significantly significant it is, you have no basis of comparison. “
Stroll Sr. made no secret of its desire to make Aston Martin a winning team. A few years ago, given the obvious strengths of Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, that might seem a bit ambitious.
PLUS: How Stroll plans to make Aston Martin the F1 world champion
Resetting the rules, however, gives any team an obvious opportunity to brawn and find an edge, and more importantly, F1 won’t be a money race anymore – it’s about how efficient you can be.
“I think it’s realistic,” says Szafnauer about Stroll’s goal. “I think we will have the financial resources under the new financial rules to do this.
“That’s the big impact this year, as well as the control by the FIA, which is absolutely fine. We’re well under it.
“But the other big thing is that in a few years, when we hit the cost cap because it’s going down, we’ll also have to make strategic decisions.”
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR21
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
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