F1 News
Aston Martin wants to become champion within five years
- GPblog.com
With the intensive cooperation between Mercedes and Racing Point, the ambition of the latter in 2020 was already clear. This year the team is taking a new direction with Aston Martin F1 Team. The car was officially unveiled on Wednesday and in our extensive analysis we took a closer look at the changes. Aston Martin wants to compete at the front again this year and the ambition for the coming years is also clear.
Two step plan
After the unveiling of the AMR21 on Wednesday, team principal Otmar Szafnauer spoke to various media, including Motorsport.com. They asked him what the goal of Aston Martin is, to which Szafnauer replied that with this new start they want to lay the foundation for the title in the near future.
Szafnauer said: "It's a lot easier to say we're going to be fighting and winning a world championship than actually doing it. The two things that have to happen is one we need a good plan, in order for us to start today and get to world championship contenders, and then we've got to execute. And we're in the midst of that planning now.
"The execution will definitely take some time. People in F1 and other teams have said you know you've got to give us three to five years to do so. And we're no different."
In other words, the team wants to become Formula One world champions between three and five years and they have been working on that for quite some time. For example, last year they planned a new factory that should be fully operational by the end of 2022 with everything under one roof.
"...that will help us design and develop a car that's worthy of contending for a world championship, so that's a few years away. If I have to look into the future, you know it'll be in the three to five year time period."
These are ambitious plans and with the development Aston Martin is going through now, they seem to be pulling out all the stops to achieve that ambition.
Become a champion faster...?
What can be both advantageous and disadvantageous are of course the new rules that come into effect in 2022. It is possible that it could even shorten the aforementioned three to five year time frame. Sebastian Vettel says: "Formula 1 is changing at the same time, so time will tell. But maybe you don’t need those three to five years anymore.
"Maybe it will shrink, and that’s the hope for everyone, to be a bit closer to the top and not just be on the podium because you got lucky that the guys at the front retired or crashed. We’ll see how Formula 1 changes in the next years," said Lance Stroll's new teammate.