BEVERLY HILLS, February 25, (THEWILL) – Aston Martin, the iconic luxury British sports car manufacturer, that decidedly left Formula One after 1960 due to a series of poor performances, will have their first Formula 1 car in six decades back in the racing circuit again. On Wednesday, a teaser video revealed that the car will be called the AMR21.
The 2021 race car will be launched on Wednesday, March 3 and the name is a departure from the 1960 DBR5 car that was named after then-team owner David Brown.
The team to take on the Aston Martin brand is the F1 racing unit known as Racing Point and they say work on the switch to AMR21 began in August last year and 50% of the 2020 Racing Point’s DNA was carried over to the machine powering AMR21.
As part of the process of continuity around which the return of Aston Martin is built, the British car manufacturer will also carry over sponsor BWT, an Austrian manufacturing company of water treatment systems, from their Racing Point days. The only difference BWT will no longer be the title sponsor but the American IT firm Cognizant, whose brand will now be most prominent in the promotional material.
Another aspect of the improvements done ahead of the Aston Martin reveal were the considerable adjustments made on the 2021 car’s aerodynamics, according to the explanation of Technical Director, Andrew Green, who said: “All the aero components are designed by the aerodynamics team using Catia CAD. These models are then imported into CFD [computational fluid dynamics], processed, and the results analysed.
“We, as a team, develop the CFD too, so ultimately, it’s only as good as we can make it. It is highly optimised to work with Formula 1 cars and, as it develops, it becomes increasingly powerful.”
Added to that, Bob Halliwell, who is the team’s production director, remarked that Aston Martin are motivated to continually improve their car thanks to the new branding and investment going forward.
“I think it [Aston Martin’s arrival] made everybody up their game and their attention to detail, that desire to always improve,” he said. “We’re taking on more technical people to enable us to build up and develop in all areas across the business, but in a controlled way.
“Having Aston Martin behind us is enabling us to move forward and get these things put in place. It has been a big change for us and it’s very exciting.”
Leading the team’s charge for glory is four-time F1 champion Sebastian Vettel and younger Canadian racer Lance Stroll, the son of Lawrence Stroll, who owns Aston Martin. On the expertise of these drivers, the team will hang their aspirations for podium finishes with the AMR21 this season, with work already under way on upgrades and on the team’s 2022 car as of January.
Meanwhile, Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll has admitted to being tempted to offer Sir Lewis Hamilton the chance to end his record-breaking career with the historic British brand especially after the recent shenanigans with Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 racing team management.
The Canadian fashion billionaire Stroll, who is leading their return to the circuit after 61 years away, a comeback he has called the “biggest thing to happen to the sport in decades”, confessed to the temptation to snag up the Brit and offer him a driver’s seat with the returning team, in what could have truly been the biggest transfer in recent F1 history.
“It is definitely tempting,” Stroll said in an interview recently. “Lewis in any car is great, and I am sure everyone would say yes because he is a seven-time world champion.
With Hamilton’s latest deal due to expire at the end of the season, and Mercedes understood to be exploring their future options, would the ambitious Stroll be interested in exploring the transfer?
“But right now, I am extremely focused on getting started this year,” he answered, in reference to Aston Martin’s return to racing F1.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
