F1 News
How far behind is Aston Martin? 'Backlog given to us by the FIA'
- GPblog.com
Aston Martin seemed to have built up some ground in the winter test and these suspicions were confirmed during the Bahrain Grand Prix. Only Lance Stroll was able to play a significant role and eventually finished in tenth place. For Aston Martin this result was a bit of a shock, after their victory in Bahrain a few months earlier.
Otmar Szafnauer also noticed that it was a bit of a switch once the gap became clear. "I think it only really became clear in qualifying. Then we analyzed the data and it showed that the cars with a low rake really suffered more from the rule changes. That's why we were already expecting a tough race, but there are some positives we can take from this weekend," the Aston Martin team boss explained to Formula1.com.
Understanding changes
"We need to understand that in race conditions we are a bit faster than over one lap. Compared to where we were a few months ago, before the changes, we still have a lot of work to do though," Szafnauer acknowledged. Nevertheless, he is still holding out hope for a recovery in 2021 and is not giving up everything to shift the focus to 2022 early on.
"I think now it's going to be mostly working on the backlog we've been given by the FIA. When you talk to other teams, you hear that they make up their backlog, we don't do that. That's because of the different philosophy around aerodynamics that we use. We will work hard to reduce that gap in the coming races", concluded Szafnauer.