Aston Martin is returning to Formula One racing with a new car, the AMR21, that will be driven by four-time F1 champ Sebastian Vettel and rising star Lance Stroll this season.
The luxury marque, which is returning to the Formula One World Championship after making a 61-year pit stop, will power the AMR21 with a Mercedes engine and has outfitted the car with a redesigned chassis.
“Today is a truly historic moment for Aston Martin, as we return to the pinnacle of motorsport for the first time in more than 60 years,” said Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers. “The Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team will have far-reaching positive effects on the Aston Martin brand, our culture, and the design and technology of Aston Martin road cars. Our return to Formula One will positively and profoundly affect every employee and foremost our customer journey all over the world; and will help us bring a focused, agile Formula One way of thinking to the whole Aston Martin business.”
Daniel Craig, who knows a thing or two about Aston Martins thanks to his stint as James Bond, participated in the unveiling with a video message.
The AMR21 will be the first F1 racer to sport Aston Martins’s iconic wings since Maurice Trintignant’s DBR5 crossed the finish line at Silverstone in 1960.
Though Aston Martin is entering back into the F1 fray, team principal Otmar Szafnauer does not sound overly optimistic about the team contending for a title right off the bat.
“It’s a lot easier to say we’re going to be fighting and winning a world championship than actually do it,” Szafnauer said, according to ESPN. “The two things that have to happen are, one, we need a good plan in order to start today and get to world championship contenders and then we’ve got to execute it. We’re in the midst of that planning phase now and the execution will definitely take some time. People in Formula One, in other teams, have said you’ve got to give three to five years to do so and we’re no different. If I have to look into the future it’ll be in the three-to-five-year time period.”
The F1 season will start with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 28.
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