Aston Martin’s F1 Return and a Big Win
As I’m sure you’re all aware Aston Martin has re-entered Formula 1 this year with this the AMR 21 and as I speak the team’s best result has been a stunning second place by resurgent Sebastian vettle in Baku but arguably ason Martin had its biggest win of the year before the season had even started you see at the end of 2020 the contract to provide the safety car and the medical car was up now Mercedes has provided that for well pretty much since time had begun.
But Aston Martin snuck in there and as a consequence at half the races for this year you will spot a vantage doing safety car duties and a dbx doing medical car duties that’s a pretty big coup because if you think about it the only road cars that you actually ever see at an F1 race are the safety car and the medical car and to celebrate All That Aston Martin has now built this this is the Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition resplendent in satin shade of the F1 car’s green paint with the broad stripe running from Vin Grill to the new rear wing and as you can see there are a couple of small badges with the official F1
The Interior and the Development Challenge
In here well it’s basically the same as the AMR Edition car with the sort of lime green stitching and bits of leather sort of like here and lots of alcatara which I love there is of course an F1 badge inside as well perhaps surprisingly this is not actually a limited edition car rather it’s the new 142,000 Halo for the Vantage range even more intriguingly tobas Ms aston’s new CEO set the development team the challenge of making this car quicker on track with a target of 7 minutes 30 around the NCH life but without cheating in other words they weren’t allowed to Simply bolt on a stickier set of tires like some corses or cup twos.
Under the Bonnet and Chassis Updates
There aren’t big increases under the Bonnet either with the turbocharged 4 L V8 only gaining 25 brake horsepower taking it up to 520 BHP in total maximum torque stays exactly the same at 55 foot but that Peak is sustained for longer well we’ve got then a lot of suspension changes and again it’s quite detailed stuff but the whole idea is to basically give it more lateral stiffness and more support particularly at the rear to this end there are stiffer bump stops at the front with more Rebound in the dampers as well as half a degree more negative cber and a sheer panel that has doubled in thickness.
At the rear the spring rate has gone up by 10% and the compression damping is been increased while there is also a small lateral damper to help keep the transmission in check the new Arrow helps provide 200 kilos more down Force than the standard car and although the tires rubber compound is largely unchanged there are now larger 21in forged wheels all around the gear shifts while we still got the ZF 8-speed Auto in here but the torque interruptions have actually been shortened so whereas before they they might have given a few more Pops and crackles they might have been a bit more dynamic in some respects now they’re just smoother quicker on the track.
On the Track
Well to be honest I found that you want to go sort of straight through from sport through Sport Plus just ignore that and go for track because although yes it is sort of pretty busy straight away and this is quite a bumpy circuit this little Stow circuit it’s quite tight it’s quite technical it’s quite testing really for any car particularly a car that can sometimes maybe feel a bit heavy but this car just gets better and better the harder you drive it [Music] through this corner here so you’re braking under brakes you really feel it nice and precise and then through this long corner you can just balance it on the throttle of course if you do want to be a complete.
You can now I think it’s worth pausing to say that I did drive this car briefly on the road too out in the leafy Lanes the dampers are resol enough that they need to be kept in the softest of their three settings but although bumps and lumps are more keenly felt and you couldn’t describe it as smooth it isn’t a crashy or jarring ride some of the compliance has also been taken out of the steering system to give a slightly more connected feel which is pleasing and the throttle response is livelier too definitely doesn’t do relaxed in the same way as the standard car anyway back to the track I always have those images of the safety car and the medical car.
Just in that love state of sort of four-wheel drift I suppose just constantly not over steering not big Smoky slides but just that little sort of just moving across the circuit and you really can do that in this if you took it to a try day obviously you can’t go and do B Smoky skids everywhere but there’s just a Precision in this that because again it’s on not a sort of a really extreme Tire it’s not a track tire it’s on still a road compound despite the fact we it’s got bigger Wheels but you can just place it more accurately and drive it on the throttle but not overly lar if you don’t want to I love it through this chicane here actually just balance it again use the throttle really use the throttle in this car cuz yes you can get it rotated like I say you don’t want to overload the front end you just want to drive it on the throttle you know it’s quite an old school fashion I suppose how close is it to the actual safety car well that’s got some more arrow is it doesn’t have to worry about pedestrian impact Rigs and it’s also got an upgraded cooling package but otherwise it’s apparently very similar burn my Lander think I’ll have a lot of fun trying to keep an F1 pack behind me.
the only thing perhaps I’d like is well some different seats in here because I think with a car that’s this good on track and actually you would once taken on track I’d like some more aggressive bucket seats or at least the option of them for those that do want to use it on track so through the long tight left under here just sometimes when you sitting into the slideer you you don’t have the Precision of a mechanical limited slip diff really impressed with the brake so I say the Precision under breing the way you can place the car that is really nice.
Verdict and Conclusion
What then to conclude about the Vantage F1 Edition well the changes certainly make it more enjoyable and accomplished on the track and more engaging if a little less refined on the road things like the gearbox and seats not forgetting the tires of course mean that it certainly isn’t a full-blown min1 GT3 rival and Aston certainly isn’t pitching it as one what is it then a CS a GTS maybe well after a bit of pondering I realized that it reminded me very much of the recipe for the N for nuring cars that appear appeared in the old Vantage range and that’s no bad thing at all.