Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team’s triple-header came to a disappointing close at the Austrian Grand Prix, with both Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel finishing well outside the points in thirteenth and seventeenth respectively.
It was a disappointing grand prix for both Aston Martin drivers who ran a two-stop strategy, after having to start on the soft tyre. This strategy proved to be the wrong one, with both Stroll and Vettel getting caught up in traffic when on fresh rubber.
Stroll’s race was hampered by debris lodged in his brake duct, whereas Vettel got punted off the track on the final lap by an unsighted Kimi Räikkönen, whilst fighting for eleventh.
Aston Martin CEO and Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer is aware that both drivers were unlucky, and that there is plenty of data to analyse ahead of the teams home grand prix.
“A number of factors combined to prevent us from scoring points today, despite both our drivers having done so well to get through to Q3 yesterday. That strong performance showed the underlying pace of our car, but it is possible that other teams that did not get through to Q3 were actually advantaged by that failure, since our drivers were both forced to make their first pit stops early as a result of having started the race on the Softs on which they qualified in Q3.
“We will have to analyse that issue carefully. Additionally, through no fault of his own, Lance was very unlucky to be slowed by debris that lodged itself in a brake duct, while Sebastian was nerfed off the track in the closing stages by [Kimi] Räikkönen.
“Looking on the bright side, next up is our home race, the British Grand Prix, and we will now start working through today’s data to learn from and build on the positives, in order to put on as good a show as we possibly can in front of the famously passionate Silverstone crowd.”
