Aston Martin’s 2022 officially began today with the presentation of the AMR22, the ground-effect single-seater that once again this season will be entrusted to the four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel and to Lance Stroll.
When the canvas with the Union Jack was lifted and the shapes of the car were shown, it was immediately tried to understand if the Aston Martin shown to the press was a simple showcar with the 2022 livery (as done yesterday by Red Bull to the great disappointment of all ed.) or if, on the other hand, it was the car that will face the season that kicks off in March in Bahrain. Fortunately, the first hypothesis prevailed.
On the sidelines of the presentation, after the usual declarations by Lawrence Stroll and the two drivers, it was the turn of Andy Green, the team’s technical director, to talk about the difficulties imposed on the designers by the new technical regulations.
Green wanted to focus his attention on the type of set-up that the teams will have to adopt this year, specifying how it will be essential to have cars as close as possible to the asphalt to amplify the ground effect.
“From an aerodynamic point of view we have to face some challenges. With the introduction of ground effect cars it will be crucial to keep the cars as close as possible to the asphalt “.
Aston Martin AMR22
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“The more you graze the ground, the more performance you will be able to extract from the car. Therefore, we will have to look for a set-up that offers maximum performance and the drivers will have to drive a relatively rigid car ”.
“To keep this set-up so close to the ground, the drivers will have the feeling of being behind the wheel of something similar to a go-kart”.
Green then spoke of the loss of downforce that the 2022 single-seaters will have to face at least at the beginning of the season, but he said he was confident that in a short time we can return to the values seen in the past.
“This is a significant aerodynamic loss compared to the cars we had in 2021. We can say that with these cars we have taken a few steps back in terms of development, but it is also true that the teams have been working on it for a year.”
“The generation of single-seaters with which we ended the 2021 season has been able to count on more years of development in terms of the aerodynamic concept. However, I believe it won’t be long before we exceed the downforce values we had on 2021 cars ”.
Simon Cayzer, head of production control, spoke to emphasize how the Aston Martin AMR22 is a completely different car from last season’s single-seater.
“The AMR22 is a revolutionary car. We have probably used only 10% of the components present on the 2021 car. This is a relatively small percentage due to the regulatory changes that have imposed new challenges on the designers. “
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