Sebastian Vettel’s AMR21 will recieve in Barcelona this week the same aero upgrades enjoyed by Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll last weekend at Portimão.
Stroll was awarded the latest developments in priority given his tally of points in the Drivers’ standings relative to Vettel.
Although the German outpaced the Canadian in qualifying and on race day, for the first time this season, Aston Martin Performance Engineering Director Tom McCullogh says the result did not imply that Stroll’s updated car offered less performance, on the contrary.
“In the race Sebastian slipped from his P10 grid slot to a P13 finish, while Lance climbed from his P17 grid slot to a P14 finish,” explained the Aston engineer.
“You do not have to be a skilled mathematician to realise that their race performances were opposites, and the reason for that is that.”
“Without aero updates, Sebastian was unable to stay ahead of three cars that had qualified behind him, while, with aero updates, Lance was able to move ahead of three cars that had qualified ahead of him.
“The post-race analysis we have done duly showed that Lance was able to access greater race pace than Sebastian was, the result of the aero updates uniquely fitted to his car, which he used to good effect.”
Vettel says he is eager to sample the updates this weekend at Barcelona’s high-grip Circuit de Catalunya.
“This weekend, I’ll have the upgrade Lance used in Portugal – which he felt was promising – so I’m looking forward to experiencing it for myself.
“Looking at the last race, it’s clear that we have better race pace than single-lap performance, so we’ll be looking to make improvements on Saturday to give us the best chance of points on Sunday.
“We all know Sunday afternoons at Barcelona can be tricky for overtaking, so it’s important that we maximise our opportunities where we can.”
