The Silverstone-based outfit favors a low-rake concept and claims that it has suffered more than most of its competitors due to aerodynamic regulations put in place for 2021.
In contrast to Red Bull, which has adopted a high-rake philosophy for many years, Mercedes also drives a lower rake.
And Aston Martin team boss Otmar Szafnauer argues that the impact of the changes can be seen in how close Red Bull is to Mercedes this year compared to 2020.
“If you just watch the last race without that [final] Pit stops for Mercedes for example, I think Lewis was 34 seconds ahead of Max at last year’s Portimao, ”said Szafnauer.
“If they hadn’t had the pit stops in the end to set the fastest lap, I think it was four seconds this year. They lost 30 seconds in a race against a Red Bull.
“And so are we, if you look at our times when we finished, we were about 30 seconds behind where we were last year, too. Look at the first three races, see both qualifying and race results. “
On the subject of matching items
Szafnauer revealed that Aston Martin initially realized that the rule changes last summer could harm low-rake cars.
“We’ve been developing a high-rake car for many, many years since the high-rake concept began with the blown floor,” he said. “And we were the only ones who switched from a high-rake concept to a low-rake concept.”
“So we have the ability to use both CFD and tunnel runs to internally examine the experience of both and determine whether this is more harmful to one philosophy than the other. That is exactly what we did, and exactly what we mentioned last August, and I think we turned out to be right. “
The changes were made to reduce downforce and slow the cars down to avoid flat tires similar to last year’s British Grand Prix.
On the subject of matching items
Szafnauer claims alternative ways of slowing down cars were rejected by Formula 1 despite three teams voting against the soil changes during an indicative location on the Technical Advisory Committee, with the current changes being enforced for safety reasons.
“We objected because they [the rules] were cheaper for high-rake cars, ”he said. “We objected to this and then proposed other regulations that would be more equivalent.
“We suggested not making the second changes. The changes were made one by one and we thought the first change was enough to slow the cars down. So we suggested just leave it there.
“But there are other solutions that have been suggested, and not by us, but early on. I’ll give you an example of reducing the rear wing size and that would have affected everyone equally, but that was not chosen. “
Szafnauer announced that Aston Martin has made “good progress” following discussions with the FIA, after initially emphasizing that the team wanted the changes to the regulations to be withdrawn.
“We had good conversations with the FIA to understand the process and how we got to where we were,” he added. “The discussions are almost over. I think we made good progress to understand what happened. “
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