British racing green returns with the Aston Martin AMR21

The iconic British racing green makes a comeback following the Aston Martin reveal of the AMR21. The famous car manufacturer is marking the return of the constructor to the grid after 61 years away.

Racing Point are no more, with a rebrand to become Aston Martin. The team has adopted the British racing green colour that has long been teased, as well as retaining some pink elements that Racing Point was known for through sponsor BWT.

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel made his first public appearance with the outfit at the launch event following his winter move from Scuderia Ferrari, joining new teammate Lance Stroll.

Both drivers will sample the new Aston Martin Formula 1 car for the first time when it completes a shakedown during a Silverstone filming day.

The AMR21 car is an evolution of last year’s RP20 following the freeze on wholesale development under the technical regulations in a bid to cut costs following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Technical director Andrew Green said the focus for the team over the winter had been on recovering the downforce lost under the rule changes for 2021, as well as updating the rear of the car to 2020-spec as designed by Mercedes.

“The main drive in performance is aerodynamics, so there’s obviously a big push on the aerodynamic side,” Green explained to select media.

“The regulation change that came through late last year had a big effect on the aero performance and we spent the winter trying to try to recover the losses from the changes in the regulations.

“That’s been a big focus. We’ve changed the rear of the car now to the 2020 suspension as supplied by Mercedes.

“That was always the plan. So those are the two main areas that we’ve been focused on over the winter.”

Aston Martin will look to build on an impressive year for Racing Point in 2020 that saw the team finish fourth in the constructors’ championship, and score its first victory at the Sakhir Grand Prix.

Team principal Otmar Szafnauer outlined the goals for Aston Martin in 2021, targeting a continuation of its late-season form from last year and greater consistency over the season.

“Success would be to start the season where we left off,” Szafnauer said.

“We were very competitive in the races towards the end of last year.

“Unfortunately, we had a few crucial engine failures towards the end, which meant we didn’t extract all the points we could have out of that performing car.

“If we can start with that car performance where we left off, but do a better job scoring points more regularly, and be a more consistent points scorer, I think that would be a success for us.”

5 thoughts to “British racing green returns with the Aston Martin AMR21”

  1. Aston Martin Racing has set a five-year target for winning Formula 1 world title. Motorsport.com has the news story.

    Aston Martin has its sights set on winning the world championship within the next five years, as it unveiled its new Formula 1 car on Wednesday.

    The Silverstone-based team is embarking on an all-new era under the moniker of the famous British sportscar manufacturer, and has laid down lofty ambitions for what it wants to achieve in grand prix racing.

    Speaking as the covers came off the green, black and pink ARM21, team principal Otmar Szafnauer said that the ambitions for the outfit were to lay the foundations for title glory by the mid-2020s.

    “It’s a lot easier to say we’re going to be fighting and winning a world championship than actually doing it,” he said.

    “The two things that have to happen is one we need a good plan, in order for us to start today and get to world championship contenders, and then we’ve got to execute. And we’re in the midst of that planning now.

    “The execution will definitely take some time. People in F1 and other teams have said you know you’ve got to give us three to five years to do so. And we’re no different.

    “For the last year we’ve planned a new factory with new infrastructure, and a place to house all of us under one roof to grow the team, and the implementation of that has just now begun at Silverstone.

    “Towards the end of 2022, we should be moving into a new factory for example, and within that factory we’re going to need state of the art tools that will help us design and develop a car that’s worthy of contending for a world championship, so that’s a few years away.

    “If I have to look into the future, you know it’ll be in the three to five year time period.”

    Having signed four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel for this season, the team is looking at making rapid progress.

    Reflecting on Aston Martin’s target of going for title glory within five years, Vettel reckoned that such a time frame was realistic – although he pondered whether new rules could shorten what was needed.

    “I think it is a longer-term project if you really want to win,” he explained. “Obviously if you look at Mercedes, they started somewhere, 2011, ’12, and then really got into the winning ways with the new power unit when they just got out of the gates a lot faster than anyone else.

    “The car wasn’t really that great in 2014, chassis-wise. And from then onwards, if you say ’11, then it took them another five years to really build a car that was probably considered the best chassis. That’s the time it takes. But then everybody has that time, and not everybody has done the job.

    “So there are a lot of projects going around, different manufacturers, and in the end only one can win. But Mercedes has been the one that has been the strongest. So hats off to them, and the others were just not good enough.”

    But with F1 introducing a cost cap and new rules from 2022, Vettel said that could have an impact on how quickly progress could be made.

    “Formula 1 is changing at the same time, so time will tell,” he said. “But maybe you don’t need those three to five years anymore.

    “Maybe it will shrink, and that’s the hope for everyone, to be a bit closer to the top and not just be on the podium because you got lucky that the guys at the front retired or crashed. We’ll see how Formula 1 changes in the next years.”

  2. We’ll “get the best” out of Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin, says team chief Otmar Szafnauer. Motorsport.com provides the full details.

    Aston Martin F1 Team chief Otmar Szafnauer believes he can extract the best from four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel after his ill-starred final season with Ferrari in 2020.

    Vettel finished 13th in the points last year, his worst position since his rookie BMW/Toro Rosso part-season in 2007. His tally of 33 points last year was barely one third of that teammate Charles Leclerc scored, and Vettel admitted he considered retirement before signing with Aston for 2021.

    But Szafnauer believes he can create an environment for Vettel at Aston Martin for him to thrive once more, and is willing to put an “arm around his shoulder” if necessary.

    “I’ve always said, and will continue to say so, at 33 years old you don’t forget how to drive a Formula 1 car fast,” said Szafnauer on a call with select media including Motorsport.com. “So it’s got to be other things. And we will work tirelessly to make sure that we don’t introduce those things, and actually alleviate them.

    “An arm around the shoulder means that everybody’s listening to his wants and his needs. And we’ll work hard to make sure the car is to his liking and the setup is like he wants it.

    “We’ve got two drivers to look after. And if we treat them equally, which in the past we’ve been really good at doing and I anticipate we’ll do that in the future as well, I think that’s all it takes with Seb. And then if he doesn’t overdrive the car, drives like he can, and we will definitely get the best out of him.”

    Szafnauer says his other driver, Lance Stroll, will have to bring his A-game to face this new challenge, after being beaten in the championship in his two years with Racing Point by outgoing teammate Sergio Perez.

    “To beat Sebastian Vettel, you’re gonna have to work hard,” he said. “Sebastian’s got a great work ethic. And we’re working really hard to make sure that Sebastian feels comfortable at our team, and we get him back up to his best. So it’ll be very interesting.

    “Does [Lance] have the wherewithal to do it? Absolutely. But, like I said, it’s going to take a lot of hard work. And I would imagine Sebastian is going to also try to beat his teammate.”

    Szafnauer also clarified exactly what happened when he was spotted giving Vettel a lift in his Ferrari Pista road car to a petrol station during the British Grand Prix weekend last year, saying it unfolded as Sebastian had explained at the time.

    He said: “We drove to the gas station because of the car I was driving, and he had a similar one. He doesn’t have a similar one anymore! Because he sold them all.

    “But, yeah, that was the reason for the drive. And I think he was going off to do, if I remember right, some mountain biking in Wales and his direction was the same direction that I was going in. And we were both stopping at the fuel station. So he said, ‘Well, I’ll jump in with you.’

    “And I’ve known Seb, gosh, for 20-plus years now, before he was in Formula 1, when he was still a BMW driver. So he’s been a friend for a long time. And I’ve known his parents for a while as well. So, it wasn’t anything different than what he said.”

  3. Aston Martin are back on the Formula 1 grid this year for the first time since 1960. The team rveealed their new AMR21 car on Wednesday afternoon – and F1 technical expert Mark Hughes has already cast his critical eye over the new challenger. Here’s his first take on the car that Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll will be doing battle in this season…

    The new Aston Martin AMR21 is quite significantly different from its Racing Point RP20 predecessor – and its Mercedes W10 ancestor. Probably to a greater visual degree than between any of the 2020 and ’21 team cars so far.

    Its svelte shape incorporates an extensively reworked front wing, new sidepods and radiator inlets – as well as the usual 2021 refinements to the bargeboards to better meet with the requirements of the smaller regulated floor.

    Because Aston Martin were allowed a token-free upgrade of taking the 2020 Mercedes rear suspension (rather than the Mercedes 2019-spec of last year’s Racing Point), the team have been free to spend the tokens on the chassis.

    This has uniquely allowed them to optimise the chassis shape to the revised 2021 aero regulations. It appears these may have been spent around the sidepod/side impact structure, which looks to be slimmer than last year’s RP20.

    This has been part of a general shrinking of the sidepods and reshaping of the engine cover. Like the new Mercedes W12, the sidepod top features a distinctive bulge to clear something beneath (as seen in the images below) but the bulges are quite different in shape, reflecting a very different sidepod shape.

    Those on the Aston appear narrower at the front, but without the extreme lateral ramp of those on the W12.

    The swept back W11 rear suspension will have been particularly useful in helping claw downforce back lost to the new regulations, even though it was actually designed (by Mercedes) before those regulations were even thought of.

    The front wing’s contours imply even more outboard loading of what was already an outboard-loaded wing, suggesting plenty of confidence from the Silverstone-based team’s aero group.

    Although the design’s Mercedes heritage is still visible, we can now see more clearly than last year how the team is evolving on its own path with this car.

    Source: Formula1.com

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