As a result of the global pandemic due to COVID-19, Formula 1’s planned technical regulations were put back a year. In addition to aerodynamic development remaining free, the teams are permitted to spend their two development tokens to change limited parts of their choosing on this year’s car.

Aston Martin’s team principal, Otmar Szafnauer, explained in an interview with Sky Sports F1 their philosophy of the car remaining almost the same as last year, but despite that, that it is largely a new machine.

“We didn’t have the normal latitude of development that we usually do, so from a philosophy standpoint running a low-rake car, that stayed the same,” Szafnauer told Sky Sports F1.

“However, having said that, even though we didn’t have a latitude for development the FIA did make aerodynamic changes and significant changes to take downforce away and slow us down. And because of that we had to redevelop the whole thing.

“This is the first time that a carryover car has had many of its parts new, so although the philosophy is carryover we will still have a lot of new parts on the car, a lot of new aerodynamic development, even a new chassis for us as well. Although the car will be similar to last year, it’s predominantly new.”

Another benefit Aston Martin has, without spending any of their tokens, is that they are able to upgrade any 2019 non-listed parts from Mercedes it used last year to 2020 specifications. Meaning that they are able to upgrade to the 2020 Mercedes rear suspension, which was swept back and reconfigured as a part of major redesign that improved the airflow to the rear of the car.

The team, which finished fourth in the constructors’ championship in 2020 still in its Racing Point form, and Szafnauer have set their sights on going one place up in 2021. It was a close call for third place last season, but they eventually lost out to McLaren after a discouraging race in Abu Dhabi, where Sergio Perez retired early and Lance Stroll finished 10^th.

In the interview, Szafnauer added that the aerodynamic rule changes (cutting back the floor, outlawing slots in its outer edge, restricting the vanes in the rear diffuser and restrictions on winglets on the rear brake ducts) could potentially be decisive in the battle for third place in terms of who can adapt more effectively.

“It will be the target for us,” said Szafnauer when asked if third would be the objective.

“I don’t think it will be easy, we’ve got some formidable competitors there. Ferrari will work hard over the Winter to make sure they do better than last year, McLaren get a new powertrain, the same one that we have, and I’m sure they did that for reasons of competitiveness.

“And then there’s some driver movements as well, so we’ll see how all that pans out. So, there are some differences.

“And the FIA have big rule changes, they took out big chunks of the floor for us to lose downforce and depending on how the teams claw that downforce back, that’ll have a big impact on performance as well.