The Silverstone team gave Stroll the newest parts first to help expedite development of the difficult AMR21.
After an encouraging qualifying, Vettel had a frustrating Sunday in Portugal. He completed the third quarter for the first time since the British GP last year and eventually finished tenth on the grid, while Stroll struggled in the first quarter and started in 17th place.
However, the German could not maintain this form in the race, slipped to 13th place and took one place ahead of Stroll.
“I have a few little things for the next weekend,” said Vettel.
“And hopefully we can be a bit more competitive. A clean Saturday will of course be the key to a better Sunday. But I hope that we have a little more speed in the racing gear so that we can exert more pressure.”
“It seemed obvious that we weren’t up to speed like the AlphaTauris and especially the Alps. So yeah, we have to take a look. But in the end we weren’t fast enough.”
When asked if the new parts on Stroll’s car would have worked as expected, he said, “I think so, obviously I didn’t feel them. I don’t know. But I hope it will be a better weekend.
“This weekend we also struggled a bit with the setup, so I hope for a more direct weekend next and a better pace, especially on Sunday afternoon.”
Vettel said the team made the right call when it first gave Stroll the new parts.
“Obviously, he immediately felt a lot more comfortable with the car than I did. We’re still learning about the car.
“I think it’s going to be a long season, of course, but these few races are very important now to keep track of things. We still change a lot of things from one session to another to push the limits.”
Analysis of the latest developments from Aston Martin
By Matt Somerfield and Giorgio Piola
The upgrade revolves around the floor and diffuser, the area where the team feels they have lost the most this season thanks to the new aero rules.
At the front of the floor, the team tweaked the design of its “corrugated” floor, adding an additional corrugated section in front of the scrolling section of the main floor.
This smaller wave (red arrow) appears to have removed part of the property from the scroll on the first floor. However, this should help to achieve the required effect further upstream, resulting in a net profit.
Aston Martin Racing AMR21 ground fins
Photo by: Not in the credits
The introduction of this more complex corrugated floor follows the development behavior of Mercedes, the other team currently using this design method to extract performance from the front corner of the floor.
With teams no longer being able to place slits and completely closed holes in this area of the floor, this has forced a rethinking of airflow behavior, and these waves seem to allow the high pressure flow from above on the floor to settle in on the low one Pressure under the ground in a similar way.
When the car turns, it also acts like a little diffuser to add more downforce to the equation.
Aston Martin Racing AMR21 ground fins
Photo by: Not in the credits
Aston Martin has also made changes to the rear of the floor, as an extra shovel flexes in front of the rear tire (red arrow).
This affects how the airflow is directed over the rear tire into the duct next to it.
These sipes, ribbons and wings on the ground are critical to changing the flow in this channel as they can reduce the turbulent flow of the rear tire which, if not managed, will be picked up by the diffuser and reduce downforce.
Accordingly, the team also changed the shape of the diffuser ramp (circled).
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR21
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
The team ran Flow-Vis paint on the bottom of the diffuser during a few runs on Friday for visual confirmation that the upgrades are working as expected and that work at the factory is on track.
The new tire construction and lower minimum tire pressure that Pirelli introduced for 2021 also caused headaches for the teams as they had to optimize the vehicle’s performance based on new parameters.
This not only affects how the tire is brought into the temperature window, but also the front-to-back performance of the vehicle, with the front tire being a little less responsive and the driver having to work harder this season.
In response to these challenges, Aston Martin opted for an asymmetrical brake duct design last weekend that removed the outer blind plate on the drum on the left side of the car, while on the right side there was a cluster of teardrop shapes near the sockets inner shoulder.
These different constructions adjust the position and amount of heat radiated from the brakes into the rim and consequently increase the core temperature of the tire.
The changes Aston Martin made to Stroll’s car follow a dramatic upgrade the Imola team made.
On this occasion, the focus was on the AMR21’s side pods. In addition to downsizing the inlet, the team redesigned the downwash style body to improve flow over the rear of the vehicle.
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