Aston Martin’s AMR21 F1 car set for early 2021 season upgrades
Aston Martin is working on a series of upgrade packages that are set to be introduced to its AMR21 Formula 1 car early in the 2021 season.
Production on the rebranded Aston Martin team’s 2021 F1 car began back in August last year, with around 50% of the 2020 Racing Point being carried into its new challenger in line with the regulations that saw chassis development frozen between last season and this one as part of a bid to reduce costs.
Despite the significant carry-over of mechanical parts, developments to surface-area aerodynamics and a new token system for homologated parts means that a lot of work and innovation has still had to go into the AMR21.
"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," said technical director Andrew Green.
“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."
Aston Martin has already finalised the AMR21’s initial specification in time to be rolled out for pre-season testing and the opening race in Bahrain next month, while the Silverstone-based outfit is also developing “upgrade packages” to appear on the car “early in the 2021 season”.
More than 60 years away from the F1 track.
— Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) February 24, 2021
Who's ready to welcome the #AMR21? #IAMF1 pic.twitter.com/6u5tQW8jfq
The team’s production director Bob Halliwell explained that the arrival of the Aston Martin brand and fresh investment has instilled added motivation for everyone working in the factory.
"I think it [Aston Martin's arrival] made everybody up their game and their attention to detail, that desire to always improve,” Halliwell 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.”
Aston Martin will reveal its AMR21 F1 car - that will be piloted by four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll - during an online launch event on Wednesday 3 March at 3pm UK time.
