Should we already be worrying about Vettel and Aston Martin?
The Racing Point heiress took just one point from the first Grand Prix of the 2021 season. Not enough?
A complicated start for Aston Martin. The new team is in sixth place in the constructors’ standings, with just one point. But above all, Lawrence Stroll’s team has regressed in the hierarchy, and its recruit has not shone.
No top 10 in all the sessions, 18th and eliminated in Q1 on Saturday, 15th and penultimate ranked in the race on Sunday, Sebastian Vettel starts the year very badly!
In Bahrain, the quadruple world champion has at least won a title: that of being the first driver penalized in 2021, three points deducted from his license for not having slowed down enough under yellow flag conditions after Nikita Mazepin’s spin at the end of Q1. The Haas driver who still ruined the German’s final flying lap, angry afterwards in the paddock.
Vettel not yet comfortable
Cherry on the cake, Vettel found his old demons in the race, with a collision on the 45th lap. And although he cursed on his radio afterwards, he is indeed the main culprit in his collision with Esteban Ocon’s Alpine. Was he already looking at the braking point to take the racing line? He certainly forgot about the Frenchman, before ending up in his rear diffuser. 2 more penalty points in the bag, reaching a total of 5 points deducted from his license!
« I don’t feel at home in the car,” underlines Vettel after the race. « I can’t focus on driving. There are so many things we have to pay attention to.
Sebastian Vettel: « I don’t feel at home in the car »
But is Vettel the only one to blame? Who made the decision to validate a surprising one-stop strategy? The German defended this choice as a good decision. He is still the only driver to have tried such a gamble, pitting at the 24th lap to put on a set of hard tires. All this to finish 15th, second to last, overtaken by Ocon and George Russell’s Williams!
So it is a fact, Vettel has not yet adapted to his car, with barely a day of work during winter testing, excluding reliability issues.
The editorial’s opinion, to be found in the debrief of the Bahrain Grand Prix
Aston Martin has the same problem as Mercedes.
The new Aston Martin is struggling. It has regressed by 2 seconds and 3 tenths in qualifying time compared to the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix edition. Worse than Mercedes and only ahead of Haas!
Yes, the start of the season will be complicated for Aston Martin. The downside of being inspired by Mercedes: the new AMR21 has a low rake angle between the front and the rear. Understand the famous “low rake”. A configuration that disrupts the car with the new regulations and the loss of rear downforce. In short, the 2021 Aston Martin is apparently less smooth to drive than the 2020 Racing Point.
Consequence: The level of the AMR 21 was just sufficient to make it to Q3, with Lance Stroll in P10, helped by the setbacks of Sergio Pérez and Yuki Tsunoda. A nearly identical level in the race, with Stroll securing the 10th point, having maximized the potential of his car, despite being overtaken by Tsunoda in the last lap. The complete opposite of Vettel.
A hangover at Aston Martin, analyzed by team CEO Otmar Szafnauer after the race:
The wake-up call was harsh in qualifying when we analyzed the data. Cars with a low rake like ours are more affected by rule changes.
« In race conditions, we are more competitive than on a single lap. But compared to where we were a few months ago before the rule change, we have a lot of work to do.
Otmar Szafnauer, CEO of Aston Martin: “Compared to where we were a few months ago before the rule change, we have a lot of work.”
Problem, Aston Martin is like Mercedes: impossible to change the philosophy of a low-rake car, as Toto Wolff pointed out in Bahrain.
A new factory to push development.
But Otmar Szafnauer is fighting: there is more to come, we have not given up for this year. We have things in our wind tunnel and our R&D. We will soon bring them to the track.
Talking with the other teams, they have made up some of their deficit, which we did not do because of our different aero philosophy.
To develop the work, the Aston Martin team will soon be equipped with a new factory, right next to the Silverstone circuit and the team’s current premises. Owner Lawrence Stroll has put the means on the table. For a quick return on investment?
