Aston Martin is Formula 1 safety car

An Aston Martin will lead at least some laps in the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship which begins at the end of this month.

As well as joining the field of Grands Prix cars on the grids of this year’s series with drivers Sebastien Vettel and Lance Stroll, Aston Martin has been named as the safety car provider with a modified Vantage tasked with leading the field during yellow flag safety periods.

Another Aston Martin, a DBX, the brand’s first SUV, will serve as the official Formula 1 Medical Car which will attend on-track incidents.

Aston Martin is returning to F1 forts the first time since the late 1950s when the sport was in transition from the front-engined racers that had made up the field since the world championship’s inception in 1950, to the rear-engined layout pioneered by Cooper.

Cooper and the late Sir Jack Brabham won the 1959 title, and that sounded the death knell of the front-engined cars.

Ironically, Aston Martin entered F1 that year a 2.5-litre front engined car, the handsome DBR4, driven by Carroll Shelby whose name lives on the Shelby Mustang and Shelby Cobra.

Englishman Roy Salvadori drove the other F1 Aston Martin and scored its best results, second in the non-championship International Trophy at Silverstone, England, early in 1959 and two sixth placings during the championship.

Frenchman Maurice Trintignant drove the car in its final race and sole outing for 1960, the British GP at Silverstone, finishing 11th, five laps behind the winner.

Despite its good looks and high build quality, the F1 Aston Martin couldn’t match the Coopers or indeed most of its front-engined rivals and was plagued by unreliability.

It was a case of too-little-too-late and a car that arrived after its time.

Two of the Aston F1 cars were bought by Australian drivers, and four times Australian Grand Prix winner grazier Lex Davison drove one to second place in the 1960 Australian GP on the Lowood airfield circuit in Queensland.

He later raced the Aston in open wheeler races in Europe in 1961. Davison, who died in a racing accident while practising at Sandown in 1965, was the grandfather of Supercar racers Will and Alex Davison.

Melbourne car dealer and champion racer Bib Stilwell, founder of the Stilwell Motor Group, drove his DBR4 in the notoriously-wet New Zealand Grand Prix at the Ardmore airfield circuit near Auckland. He was classified 10th in spite of retiring with steering problems after 44 laps.

The race was dominated by the Lotus of Stirling Moss in his last major victory before his career-ending crash at Goodwood later in the year.

The two Aston GP cars had been re-engined with less troublesome 3.0-litre Aston Martin sports racing car motors.

Stilwell sold his car to Lionel Bulcraig after the NZGP but the Kiwi driver had little success with it and it finally went back to England.

The 2021 Vantage F1 safety car has had “significant chassis and aerodynamic improvements,” says Aston Martin.  

Driven by German, Bernd Maylander who has piloted the F1 safety car for more than 20 years, the Aston Martin will remain on standby in the pitlane throughout the races.

 Because F1 cars’ tyre temperatures can drop when the cars are running slowly, the safety car must be capable of lapping fast. 

To achieve the necessary pace, its  4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine has been re-tuned to deliver 394kW, pushing the car to 96km/h in 35 seconds. 

The Vaned grille and a new front splitter create 155.6kg of downforce at 200km/h, more than 60kg more than the production Vantage delivers at the same speed. 

Aston Martin engineers have also modified  the suspension, steering and dampers, stiffened the front of the car with underbody bracing, and have fitted an aero kit and lower profile tyres.