Despite Aston Martin being the first team to show its cards by unveiling a real F1 2022 for its presentation in early February, things are not good at the Silverstone-based team after a disastrous opening Grand Prix at Bahrain. Performance director Tom McCullough has admitted that the real AMR22 is still in the wind tunnel.
Testing and the Bahrain Grand Prix has proved to be a tricky period for Aston Martin Racing F1, with what is understood to be a very overweight car in the AMR22, also lacking in downforce. TJ13 revealed some time ago that the factory workers developing the car believed that Aston Martin would fail to show at the first test in Barcelona. The team, however, seemed to pull a rabbit out of the proverbial hat and were in fact the first team to present a real 2022 Formula 1 car and turned up at testing without a hitch.
The story unfortunately isn’t quite as clear-cut as that. The AMR22 seen in testing and the Grand Prix of Bahrain is alleged to be an early iteration, pushed through to meet the deadlines of testing and the season opening races. Perhaps even a fast-tracked response to our whistle-blower article in January. Our story certainly ruffled feathers at Silverstone.
Further, Aston Martins’ Performance director Tom McCullough hinted as far back as a week ago that what we are currently seeing on the track is not the current iteration of the AMR22, and that the real car is still undergoing testing and development in the windtunnel.
“The car you see today has nothing to do with the one we have in the wind tunnel ,” he assured before the Bahrain Grand Prix to the French edition of motorsport.com.
Perhaps a tactic to soften the blow, knowing full well that the AMR22 is overweight and produces far too little downforce so would therefore fail to impress at Bahrain and Jeddah. Indeed cooling is possibly another issue with the car, as manifested by the vast swathes of louvres all over the large sidepods. An ‘agricultural’ solution to the hot climates of the opening rounds of the Formula 1 2022 season.
The team’s morale is certainly rock bottom as revealed by this website yesterday. With other sources such as Ralf Schumacher and AMuS now hearing whispers and insights as to just how bad things are at Aston Martin. Lawrence Stroll himself sitting in on meetings and making decisions for the team certainly doesn’t bode well. READ MORE ON THAT STORY HERE
As for the drivers this weekend, it’s likely to be the same as last weekend with an early exit in Q1 on Saturday, and a difficult Sunday. Something Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg will not be relishing. Perhaps Vettel knows something we don’t and is staying as far away from this version of Aston’s AMR22 as humanly possible.
