Mercedes’ safety car will return to Formula 1 at the Mexican GP this week after 12 races with the Aston Martin car.
Mercedes have been the primary supplier for both safety and medical cars in F1 since 1996. However, at the start of this year, a partnership between the German company and Aston Martin was announced. The deal meant that the latter would be providing safety cars for 12 out of the total number of races.
The British car company returned to F1 as a constructor after 60 years. Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll rebranded his team Racing Point as Aston Martin at the start of 2021.
This is the first time that someone other than Mercedes have provided Formula 1 with safety cars. Fans have reacted very positively to the Aston Martin car, though. Their DBX and Vantage cars, which debuted in Bahrain in March, are green in colour.
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The “beautiful red beast” Mercedes returns at the Mexican GP
This season, Mercedes have been using a red-colour GTR as a safety car that hasn’t been seen on track for some time. It makes a return to the grid this weekend at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
With the Aston Martin safety car already being used for 12 races, we will likely see Bernd Mayländer drive the Mercedes car for the remaining five races of the season. After Mexico, F1 travels to Brazil, Qatar and Saudi Arabia before closing out the season in Abu Dhabi.
Mexico City will be hosting an F1 race for the first time since 2019. The race was cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
