Aston Martin copied Mercedes 2019 for their 2020 engine, working on the 2022 car chief technical officer claims “it opened their eyes”.
Aston Martin in 2020, then known as Racing Point, raised eyebrows when their car was highly similar to Mercedes 2019 championship-winning car.
Renault along with other teams spearheaded the campaign against the Silverstone based outfit. Meanwhile, Aston Martin managed to continue the season with some hiccups.
We launched our first @f1 car in 61 years in February – the AMR21.#AstonMartin #AML2021Recap pic.twitter.com/wI8zZd0WRT
— Aston Martin (@astonmartin) December 26, 2021
However, their chief technical officer Andrew Green claims that cloning Mercedes’ car in 2020 opened their eyes. And now coming into 2022, that process will help them.
“It definitely opened our eyes to new ways of working – new concepts, new ideas,” Green told The Race. “And it has enabled that thinking than to follow through to some degree on the 21’ car but the 2022 car definitely.”
The 2022 regulations promise to bring more competition to the grid with radical chassis changes. Therefore, many teams are focused on adapting to the new guidelines that may change their fortunes.
Also read: Aston Martin test driver gives initial feedback on 2022 F1 car
Aston Martin didn’t copy
Green talks about the allegations of his team copying Mercedes in 2020. But he claims that it was more about observing Mercedes and not copying them.
“What we did was look at the car and went about working out why that car was significantly quicker than everybody else,” says Green. “We did our own learning. There’s no shortcut to doing it.
“It’s not a copy, it’s developing a solution where you’ve got a rough idea of what you think the answer is, but you’ve still got to get there and it takes a lot of development and a lot of work to understand.”
“In some ways, it’s even harder because sometimes the directions pull you away from what you believe to be the right answer. I think the team did a great job in understanding the philosophy behind it.”
Also read: Aston Martin boss declares his goals; warning to Red Bull and Mercedes?
