Sebastian Vettel Overlooked as Lance Stroll Set to Receive Aston Martin’s Much-Anticipated B-Spec AMR22 at Spanish GP

Formula 1 resumes racing in Barcelona from May 20-22. As we start the European leg of the calendar, teams have already started confirming the planned upgrades they will be bringing. Aston Martin will be bringing a new car into the midfield. And it seems the new car will be available only to Lance Stroll, not Sebastian Vettel. 

So what is the new Aston Martin car about?

Following the disappointment of Pre-Season testing, Aston Martin was one of the teams working on a totally new car. It was nicknamed the ‘B’ Spec car of the current AMR22 car. And now it seems like a reality as most of Aston’s resources have been invested into the new car. According to Formula Uno, due to delays in the program, it was possible to build only one car. 

“We are already working on a different car from the one on the track now”, said Aston Martin’s Performance Director Tom McCullogh. Chief Technical Officer Andy Green had clarified that the car would undergo a radical change; as they investigated ideas from other teams. McCullough also said to Motorsport.com that other teams would also have a new car as well. 

“As you’re adapting your cars, and optimizing your cars, there’s going to be an element of that car is strong, and it’s gone that way that we sort of half looked at before. So let’s revisit the data we’ve already got.”

“As Andrew Green has said we tried with this car not to drive ourselves into any cul-de-sacs. So of all the different solutions out there, from the packaging and philosophy side of things, we just thought we want to be able to have a bit of freedom not to lock ourselves in totally to just one philosophy.”

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While it is unclear what the changes will entail to the new car, drag reduction and elimination of porpoising will be the highest priority. With Sebastian running the old car and Lance in the new one, it will be interesting to see which concept works best.

Sebastian Vettel struggles with 2022 Aston Martin

Aston Martin’s ambition to return to the top of the pecking order in 2022 hasn’t met with any success. While the team in its old colors as Force India worked well with a small budget; they have struggled since then. 

Porpoising is also one of the biggest problems of AMR22. Team Principal Mike Krack claims that proposing creates a “virtual barrier”. Hence, the Silverstone-based outfit has had to increase the ride height and that has affected performance. 

In addition, Sebastian Vettel, being infected by COVID-19 in Bahrain, affected the program as well. Vettel is very precise with his feedback to the engineers, who could then tune the car better. While Imola was a good outing and Aston Martin could have repeated the same in Miami. But a collision with Haas’s Mick Schumacher ended the streak. Nevertheless, Lance Stroll went on to finish P10 for the team. 

Aston Martin was able to achieve better performance with the current AMR22 in the last two races; will be interesting to see what the new car will look like and achieve. 

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