Formu1a.Uno - Many updates on the Aston Martin AMR21 but the goal remains fifth in championship.

PHOTO CREDIT: Aston Martin Racing

Among the teams most disappointed by the first third of the 2021 season is certainly Aston Martin, who did not expect to be practically cut out of the fight for third place in the constructors' fight.

At the advent of the home Grand Prix in Silverstone, the balance is quite negative compared to expectations, with the “big green” in the constructors' standings in sixth place, behind AlphaTauri. The goal will be to gain a position in the constructors, fifth, against AlphaTauri. Nothing else more.

Not only does the performance on track fall short of expectations, but also the effect of the car on TV. Depending on the light, the Aston Martin is easy to confuse with a Mercedes, also due to a 'technical' similarity that certainly doesn't help.

The British Racing Green seen in recent months is not convincing so much so that it is being re-evaluated for the Aston Martin next year. You don't want to change color but just make it more visible. One possibility would be to make the paint metallic but that would require a few more grams of weight, always precious in these modern F1 cars.

Returning to a more technical discourse, the leap in performance that took place in 2020 with the RP20 (when the team was still racing under the name of Racing Point), had laid the foundations for 2021 certainly more prosperous in results.

The freezing of the macro-components, and the fact of being able to use the 2020 Mercedes gearbox and suspension without spending tokens, were factors that could have a positive effect on what was the goal that vanished last season, i.e. the third constructors' place.

With this year's AMR21, the performance difficulties faced by the Silverstone team are evident, as Vettel and Stroll's car fails to generate sufficient downforce, finding itself fighting every GP for the lowest positions in the midfield, straddling the points area.

Excluding some tracks and particular situations, such as Monaco and Baku, the car does not allow the two drivers to get into the top six frequently, as happened in 2020. We know that the cuts in the floor, diffuser, and above all rear brake duct single-seaters born with a low-rake concept, such as Mercedes and Aston Martin.

The technical approach in interpreting the floor cuts was quite aggressive on the part of Aston Martin, and the single-seater designed by Andrew Green was the one that presented the most interesting solutions to the floor. Wavy edges in the middle area like Mercedes, Z-cut with different flow deviators were the aspects that emphasized the technical choices on the AMR21.

Illustration By - Rosario Giuliana

However, after the first race, it was immediately understood that it would not be easy to repeat the 2020 season in terms of results, and that to recover the gap from McLaren and Ferrari, with 2022 on which to focus the development work and add the budget cap, would not have been feasible in the short term.

In these last Grand Prix, Andrew Green's car has not failed to place technical innovations on its car, and together with Red Bull. Aston Martin is the team that has introduced the most important innovations. However, according to the team, the wind tunnel has already been working full-time on the 2022 car for a few weeks. The innovations that have been brought to the track and which will, albeit smaller, brought to the track up to the Hungarian GP, derive from tunnel/CFD sessions carried out weeks ago. 

To improve the extraction of air from the lower part of the rear, the sides (sidepods) in the Imola Grand Prix had also been revised, with a more downwash shape of the bodywork to bring more air to the bottom and to the upper part of the diffuser.

The subject of updates was precisely the flat floor, already revised in Portugal, and which in Austria 2 showed a different shape of the vortex generators on Lance Stroll's car.

Illustration By - Rosario Giuliana

During the same weekend, a new diffuser and new bargeboards were seen, which work in synergy with the new floor.

Specifically, the flow deviators have been revisited in the upper part, with the aim of better laminating the airflow coming from the front, to be directed precisely in the bottom area. A sort of double horizontal profile was created with the two “boomerang” elements, to better accompany the flow towards the sides. This package will also be available to Sebastian Vettel at Silverstone.

Illustration By - Rosario Giuliana

The lack of rear load is one of the elements that characterizes both Mercedes and Aston Martin, precisely due to the intrinsic characteristics of the two single-seaters.

Both teams are forced to adopt fairly loaded wings at the rear, to try not to unbalance the car.   In the case of Mercedes, the W12 has a front that allows the drivers to bring a lot of speed into the corner, while Aston Martin has a few more difficulties.

With this in mind, we have seen among the Austrian innovations a new front wing, this time reserved for both standard-bearers of the green team. A small aerodynamic trick, which included a modification in the higher spoiler, to which the rope was simply increased.

Illustration By - Rosario Giuliana

Aston, like Mercedes, also tried to work on the rear wing in the Austrian GP. Stroll and Vettel performed an "aerodynamic comparion" with a spoon rear wing (already tested in Imola) during the Austrian free practice, to try to gain top speed in the first sector of the Red Bull Ring. However, this solution was definitively discarded for a more loaded wing, precisely because of the difficulties mentioned above.

Illustration By - Rosario Giuliana

Finally, the final result was worse than that of race 1, with both drivers out of the points (Stroll 13th - Vettel out due to contact with Raikkonen), also due to a strategic choice, that of starting on Soft, which did not give the hoped-for benefits.

Almost mid-season it is difficult to think that there could be a change of course, by virtue of the fact that these could be the last major updates of the cars.

On the technical front, Aston Martin has also moved into the engineering market in the last month, bringing Luca Furbatto, former head of Alfa Romeo Sauber chassis, to its ranks, who will hold the role of “Engineering Director” for 2022.

Also Purchases by Red Bull, close 'only' 35 km from the Aston Martin factory, with Dan Fallows and Andrew Alessi joining the team. The first, a heavy name and who will become Aston Martin's new Technical Director, however, has a two-year contract with Red Bull, which is working to delay the sale as much as possible.

From this point of view, the head of Aston Martin F1 Lawrence Stroll is trying to move towards 2022. The experience and competence of the technicians will be fundamental, as we will basically all start from a blank sheet in the project of the next machines. year. “In our team, there are already highly valued engineers, but they are still few compared to large teams. This is why we are still on the market, even if I believe that next year we will be able to have our say in anticipation of further growth thanks to new purchases ” .

Written and illustrations By Rosario Giuliana

Co-Author: Piergiuseppe Donadoni

Original Link: https://www.formu1a.uno/tanti-aggiornamenti-sulla-aston-martin-amr21-ma-lobiettivo-rimane-la-quinta-posizione-mondiale/