Paper Number 1- Aston Martin, smart or wasted?

 

Welcome along to the Formula Overanalysis paper number 1- Aston Martin, smart or wasted?

A quick introduction to today’s topic: Aston Martin Cognizant BWT SportPesa Racing Point Sahara Force India Spyker MidLand Jordan F1 team were the third fastest car in terms of pace in 2020, behind only Red Bull and Mercedes. Without going into the whole Pink Mercedes saga, the then Racing Point team finished 4th in the constructors, which should’ve been third if it wasn’t for Karen Abiteboul. However, in 2021 preseason testing and in the early races, the pace that once was in the car, seemed to have evaporated into nothingness when 2021, Sebastian Vettel and a rebranding to Aston Martin Cognizant came around.

However, as analysed by F1 tech guy ( I guess idk) Mr Sam Collins in one of the first episodes of this year’s tech talk, Aston Martin seem to be the only team running a new chassis, unlike everyone else who decided to continue their previous year’s chassis. Why is that? People may clearly say that the change in the specification of the Mercedes engine may have brought about the requirement of a new chassis, which may be proven by the new bulge near the engine cover. However, if that’s the case, then why isn’t Mercedes deemed to be running a new chassis? Why only Aston Martin? At this point, id like to add that Andrew Green (the CTO of AM) and Otmar Szafnauer said that they have spent their winter development tokens on the survival cell and the sidepods/side crash structure.

Why is this important in noting? When we look and the side pod construction of the 2022 regulations’ car and the AMR21, the overall shape is rather similar, prompting that the sidepod shape has been altered to be similar to the 2022 regulations while it is still being run in 2021. To be specific, the side pod dips away from the crest of the inlet and then rises back up towards the rear. While it can be admitted that the shapes are not 100% congruent, there are still a lot of similarities, which may add up to similar airflow around the inlets. This is made to be more fine tuned by development done by the survival cell, which has the side pods to its immediate left and right.

Another crucial element of any car is the floor, which may be a huge part of the aerodynamic performance gain that the teams will want to extract to better themselves in in 2022. It is pretty clear that, ground effect and similar concepts will be made to use with the absence of the bargeboard. Therefore, the emphasis on ground effect and and the air ‘entering’ the floor, how fast its going and, as discussed later, how quickly it is ‘leaving’ While I do not have any pictures rn in my computer, I’m pretty sure it is known that the way AM is able to cater to the 2021 regs is by literally cutting out almost a rectangle piece out of the floor on which tails off with an actual line for an edge, rather than a nice ‘skirt’ like McLaren have. While it is true that does not really do a good job at recuperating lost downforce from the cut in the floor, the does allow the engineer to have. Abetter understanding of how the air reacts when being accelerated by a low rake concept. This is achieved as, given that the car is already a low rake car, the speed that the air achieved underneath the floor is at its possible maximum. 

Therefore, when the air leaves the floor so abruptly, it would show the flaws of the regs and the floor of the AMR21. Why is this good? Like repeated many many MANY times before, ‘Failure is the mother of success’. With this knowledge of how the air reacts when leaving the floor and how badly it behaves (proven by the actual performance drop of the AMR21 in 2021), this equips Andrew Green and the aerodynamicists at Aston Martin to be able to engineer a solution that will be able to extract as much downforce as possible.

Going very quickly into why Lawrence would continue to believe in this team is because he -and a lot of people- have a lot of stakes, investment and belief in this team. Being the executive chairman of Aston Martin Lagonda, it would require a lot of convincing to get Aston Martin back into F1, considering how badly they did back when they initially entered F1 in 1959(?). Therefore, despite not being an engineer, he may want to get his head around the actual direction and the ideology of the team’s technical approach.

In conclusion, with the side pods and overall chassis being made to look like a new chassis but in actuality is just a ‘seed’ of the 2022 chassis and the floor developments to better understand the impact the new regs has to have in order to be able to be competitive in 2022, it can be said that Aston Martin Cognizant BWT SportPesa Racing Point Sahara Force India Spyker MidLand Jordan F1 team has essentially played a very very smart move by having the 2022 parts adapted to the 2021 regs and having this entire season as a testing session to be able to figure out what works and what doesn’t. The powertrain doesn’t need a lot of looking into, as Mercedes/Daimler have upped their stake in Aston Martin Lagonda as a whole, giving AM a lot more access to information in their engines, withe the owner of Mercedes aiming to make ‘Aston Martin more Mercedes-like’. While all these positive are there, we AM fans have to acknowledge that this technical direction does come with drawbacks. The actual 2022 car will be very very competitive, essentially becoming a 2021 McLaren in terms of overall competence ceterus paribus. However, they have essentially written off this season, with developments being made to essentially test how certain parts may work when on 2022 car. On the flip side, this gives AM access to more wind-tunnel/CFD time, making them more competitive. Inclosing, id just like to say that keep your hopes up, be patient and just know that good times are coming, ‘you just wait, sunshine, you just wait’.