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Aston Martin: 'Would be great if we can start giving Mercedes-Red Bull a fight'
- GPblog.com
Aston Martin F1 Team were still known as Racing Point last year. The British racing team finished fourth in the Constructors' Championship, just seven points behind McLaren. Next season, Otmar Szafnauer's team wants to conquer at least that third spot and maybe even more. They will do so with Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel in their team.
"We had the potential to finish third. I don't think McLaren were as unlucky as we were. We should have been third. Therefore, it makes sense for us to focus on third place," Otmar Szafnauer said in an interview with RTL. Aston Martin does now have more time in the wind tunnel than the numbers one to three from last season. Is that an advantage? "It would be great if we can start giving Mercedes and Red Bull a fight," he said.
Collaboration with Vettel and Stroll
Four-time world champion Vettel should help. The German replaces Sergio Perez and in Britain, they expect a lot from him. "Seb is very experienced but not over the hill by any means at the age of 33. Lance is much younger and on the learning curve but naturally very fast. So, I think that combination will suit us very well," the team boss explained.
Stroll is only 22 years old and that is quite a difference. According to Szafnauer, however, that should not cause any problems in the partnership. "The other thing is we've had a history of drivers working very closely together to extract the most we can out of the team and the car. Even in the days when Esteban [Ocon] and Sergio [Perez] would occasionally come together on the track, behind the scenes they shared all their data, they worked together and they worked tirelessly to make sure that we got the best out of the car over a weekend," he told Sky Sports.