F1 | Emilia Romagna GP | Aston Martin request to tweak aero rules: fair or “naïve”?
Aston Martin asked the FIA to seriously consider a tweak on aero rules: Horner replied: “it’s a little naïve”
After the first session of Free Practises in Imola, a small drama sneaked into the paddock: Aston Martin asked the FIA to tweak 2021 aero rules, considering them unfair.
The new - born team argued that these new settings are causing a huge disparity between high and low rake configuration teams, in a massive quantity that it can be considered by Otmar Szaufnauer and his team unfair.
The Silverstone-based team, along with Mercedes, believes that the cuts of downforce aimed for this season caused a disparity, which is just unfair and makes them feel at unease. Aston Martin pointed out that the cuts to the floor, diffuser and brake ducts have a great cost in terms of time, causing a difference of one whole second per lap for low rake teams in comparison with high rake rivals.
At this point, we expect Szafnauer to make a purpose, and he did, in two points: the first one is pushing the floor changes through safety grounds, even if this asks to Pirelli to supply a more rubber set for this season. The second point is on safety: do FIA and financial supporters have to be involved in safety processes? Not according to Szafnauer.
“The regulation change that was made for safety reasons, that kind of governance rests solely with the FIA, - he pointed out.
“Like I said, I think that type of regulation change rests solely with the FIA. They’re the experts. The right thing to do is to have the discussions with the FIA, and find out exactly what happened and why. Then we can see if there is something that can be done to make it more equitable and I think that’s the right thing to do. We as a team have to work hard to try and claw back everything we can. But at the same time, we should be having the discussions with the FIA to make it a bit more equitable.”
An intense day but Sebastian is still smiling. 😁#SV5 debriefs Friday's running at the #ImolaGP. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/3sd81wE0dS
— Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) April 16, 2021
Aston Martin’s team principal boss words are not shared by everyone, though. Red Bull boss, Christian Horner, said he found them “a little naïve”, highlighting that every team approved these rules unanimously, and exceptions do exist.
“We had a sample of one, that Mercedes won that race with what we classify a low-rake car,– he declared to Sky Sports F1. -They had absolutely equal, if not maybe better, tyre degradation than we had in Bahrain. They've looked mighty impressive here and we've only run at one circuit so far.”
“But ignoring all of that, - he continued- there is a process for regulations to be introduced and they were voted through unanimously through the different regulations. Aston Martin or Racing Point would have had to vote for before being passed through the Formula 1 Commission and the World Council. They were all voted through unanimously.”- he repeated, stressing the concept.
Imola Grand Prix will surely be important under this point of view as well, as it will be regarded as a proof, to approve the words of one or the other team.
Are #F1 drivers athletes? 🏋️ Of course they are! And our latest Bulls' Guide proves it 💪👇
— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) April 16, 2021
