Aston Martin F1

They can always pack up and leave--and with their current performance level, it won't change the point other teams score, either.

 

As predicted - Mercedes copy for typical Billionaire arrogant short cut to success lol - https://www.planetf1.com/news/aston-martin-demoralised-lawrence-stroll/


Former F1 team boss Colin Kolles says Aston Martin staff are demoralised under Lawrence Stroll and have a radically different vision to him.

Stroll, the father of driver Lance, bought the team then known as Force India in 2018 and changed their name to Racing Point.

They remained Racing Point until the end of the 2020 campaign, in which they won a race and finished P4 in the Constructors’ Championship, before becoming Aston Martin.

Their relative success last season caused a huge amount of controversy with their car being extremely similar to the 2019 Mercedes.

According to Kolles, a former team principal of Force India, the engineers didn’t want to take this approach but were forced to by Stroll.

“In the past, the engineers were allowed to develop themselves there,” he is quoted as having told Sport1 by Grandpx.news.

“They had little budget, they were very young and efficient, very motivated and in some cases also very innovative. Since Stroll has been in charge, things have changed. And I mean everything.

“The engineers actually wanted to build a different car – one with a heavily sloping rear like the Red Bull – because the team had made its cars according to this philosophy for years.

“But Stroll only wanted a copy of the Mercedes because that seemed like the easiest way for him to achieve his goals. It is my way or no way – that’s Stroll’s mentality.

“He bought everything from Wolff.”

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Running a similar design to Mercedes has hurt Aston Martin this year as their low-rake design hasn’t worked well with the new aerodynamic regulations.

Whereas last year they often had the third-fastest car, this year’s challenger looks to be as low as sixth or seventh in the pecking order.

According to Kolles, given that they wanted to run a high-rake approach last year, the engineers are unhappy with the situation and morale is running low throughout the team.

“The engineers can’t do anything with a car they didn’t want at all,” he added.

“They are now extremely demoralised and hanging in the air. There is a lot of displeasure in that team now.”

Stroll is reportedly still considering legal action over this year’s rule changes – but first wants Mercedes to help fight his corner.

 

Same rules for everyone, guess he thought this would be easy copy Merc job done

 

I personally wouldn't give too much credit about what Colin Kolles has to say about Aston Martin; it's sour grapes.

Colin Kolles was in fact manager of that same team, when it was called Midland, post Jordan period, before being ousted.

 

I have left companies that had similar leadership (lack of) foresight............

 

The results speak for themselves going backwards not forwards

 

Their standing is worse this year because of several reason, IMO.
The core of their present car car is now 4 years old concept (copy of the 2019 MB, thus probably designed on 2018).
The aero have been in constant evolution, but the new rules concerning the floor has affected them more than most.
Like other teams, Aston suffered of not having enough pre_season testing time to adapt to the aero changes.
The driver line-up is probably not as good as it was when Perez was part of the team; Vettel doesn' seem to get to grip with the car.
All these factors put together see Aston Martin going backwards in the ranking.

 

Every other team has pretty much used last year’s chassis which was probably based on the previous year’s car and was affected by the aero changes.

AM’s 2021 car used its allowed tokens to redesign the chassis; it uses the 2020 Merc rear-end including the same 2021 engine and probably even the 2020 front end.

Most critically—and here’s the intrigue for me on how the did so—they started the season with a what was clearly the sidepod concept of the 2021 Merc. Not the 2020 Merc, not the 2019 Merc—which they were accused of “copying” and then developed to their own design—but the 2021 Merc which was not even presented yet. And yet, the AM design was “inspired” by this! And after they supposedly spent all winter designing this new concept, and learning its performance, they reverted to last year’s design as soon as they hit trouble. Last year’s design because obviously they understand it better than the design they used to inspire this year’s design. But the question remains how could they copy a design that was not public yet?

In any case, all this points to the fact that despite copying the Merc design AM don’t have the aero talent to make it work. And though it’s easy to blame the drivers—even if some here rank Stroll very highly—it’s down to the fact that other teams did a better job than AM, especially considering that AM have the best engine in the form of the Merc.

 

We know that Aston Martin's weakness is on the technical side.
Copying the MB was an expedient, but it did put a team with the disadvantage of not understanding the design.
One hopes it's only temporary and that soon they will be able to design their own car as they did in the past.
The team has only recently changed owner, and progress can't be expected overnight.

As for Lance Stroll, he is certainly not as bad as many here have depicted him.
Stroll has improved a lot, demonstrating some speed, and he can qualify well, but probably lacks aggressivity during a race.

 

I would not be surprised if Racing Point threw all their eggs into the 2020 season as a means of generating hype and signing sponsors to secure their long term financial health. Copying the Mercedes has a short term gain which they exploited very well and if they suffer in 2021, it is not that big a deal because in 2022 the cars are re-set for everyone. I maintain that Stroll is no dummy and he is very much playing the long game.

 

Does Aston have a case in F1 2021’s big technical row?

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/aston-case-f1-technical-row/6508323/

“Obviously we’re pretty much tied into the rake we ran last year,” says Williams’ head of vehicle performance Dave Robson. “So we didn’t really look to see what the floor mods would do to a lower-rake car because it doesn’t really change anything for us. So I don’t know. If people really, definitely know – then good on them. But I’m not sure quite how they would.

“It’s not clear that just because Mercedes and Aston Martin appear to be struggling more relative to the field, you could immediately point the finger at the rake based on just a couple of events. That’s a big step to make. It might turn out to be right but it’s not immediately obvious. I thought the Ferrari was fairly low-rake in Bahrain, and clearly they’ve made a big improvement…”

 

What year is this guy watching? Merc wins 3 out of 4 races and has superior race pace, whilst appearing absolutely on rails and the more versatile car...

 

“Repeat a lie a thousand times and it will become a truth,” to paraphrase Goebbels.

 

true that

 

What he is talking about is that MB has not won all 4 races with Lewis and Bottas as top 2 in each race.
Remember last year when MB had nearly a whole second on the 2nd team ?

 

"Struggling compared to the rest of the field" I read that as that the car is not as fast as others. If he means that the Merc/AM teams aren't enjoying the advantage that they did last year, fair enough...but to put that all on the low rake design is a big stretch. Red Bull clearly improved their car from last year. Aston Martin's margin over the midfield was marginal, losing 2 tenths could easily mean the difference between starting 5th or 10th in 2020 and it's no different now. AM has a car they did not design themselves so to interpret the design and advance on it will always be more difficult. It's not hugely questionable for other teams to have simply found a tenth or two in order to move up the grid. AM is taking the easy route and blame the technical regulations (that they voted for). Doing both their own and Mercedes' overlords footwork on it.

 

So this season is a write off for Aston. Shame.

But they bigger question is; what will they do for next year when the aero regs are completely different? They can’t copy Merc as there won’t have been a previous year Merc design...?

 

+1 that's how Stroll rolls.

 

Poor Stroll Sr. Cannot just cut/paste to success like he probably has in other endeavors using his wealth lol

 

Poor Stroll Sr. Cannot just cut/paste to success like he probably has in other endeavors using his wealth lol

 

Well, for 2021, and after they developed their own design last year, they somehow copied the aero of the yet-to-be-unveiled 2021 Merc! So, I think we have a pretty good idea of what to expect next year.

 

I have my instincts data sharing will be avail from Mercedes in some fashion. Just not enough to trigger the FIA and its new copying rules. I think Mercedes are an efficient team overall, have amazing results, I trust them little with respect to Aston-Clone. Simply too close together overall. I dont like it their closeness.