Aston Martin test driver Nick Yelloly gives positive feedback to the 2022 F1 car that will be soon launched before the start of next season.
Aston Martin rebranded itself from Racing Point in 2021. Taking an impressive 2020 record, it seemed like the new investment by Lawrence Stroll under the flagship of Sebastian Vettel will boom.
However, the Silverstone based team suffered in 2021 and finished P7 on the constructors’ table. Now, hoping for a better year in 2022, Aston Martin is developing its new machinery.
And its test driver Nick Yelloly has given his first feedback on Aston Martin’s 2021 car. For Yelloly, there are only positive insights to provide after his first trial.
“We covered off set-up options, some aspects of next year’s car and some specific direction in set-up so I could get a feeling of how they compared to running in the simulator,” said Yelloly.
“We have been working on the 2022 car for a long time, with our first running in the sim back in March. Obviously when we get the new car on the track, that will be the main point.”
“But in general, the car feels very, very good and we test each new idea out on the simulator before even thinking about any build process. We have made big gains since March and now we look forward to the February running in Barcelona.”
It was great to get through all we needed over the day, and yes, I have a bit of a sore neck now!
Really good correlation runs between the car and the sim and test items for the ‘22 car with all the rule changes, so all-in-all, a very good day.#F1 #F1Testing #YasMarinaCircuit pic.twitter.com/32uZ6EbpZt
— Nick Yelloly (@NickYelloly) December 14, 2021
Aston Martin is taking it close
Yelloly took 118 laps in the AMR21 in Abu Dhabi claims that all his work with the simulator over the past year correlates on the track. Thus, it’s a bright side to look at.
“It’s very close! I was surprised by how I found the car compared to the simulator, but there are little nuances – for example, the way the tyre slides, the feeling of braking, and the car’s reaction over certain kerbs.
“They are small areas we can look at, but in general, the simulator is in a perfect window, and it really helped me dial in my driving to the car early on.
“So it’s given a few things to work on to take us to an even higher level and soon I’ll be back in the simulator for a correlation day.”
