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Aston Martin raised many eyebrows this weekend after it debuted its almost-new car in Barcelona. The reason for this being that the newly upgraded AMR22 bears an uncanny resemblance to Red Bull’s RB18. Despite its strong form in the practice sessions, the car’s performance in Saturday’s qualifying session was underwhelming, as both Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel were eliminated in Q1.
It is no surprise that the Silverstone-based team received criticism this weekend for its "Green Red Bull." However, Stroll was quick to point out that if Aston Martin had really copied the Austrian team's design, they would have ranked much higher in the pecking order instead of being eliminated in Q1 itself.
He said:
“We’d be two seconds faster if it was a copy. I hope we missed something, because at the last race we were in Q3 and now we’re out in Q1. We’re miles off the pace.”
Elaborating on this later in the media pen, the Canadian-Belgian driver said that he had been struggling with the balance of the car all weekend and that if one isn't able to feel comfortable in the car, then it is hard to pull out fast lap times as well.
He said:
“It is a disappointing result today. I have struggled with the balance of the car all weekend and, when you do not feel comfortable, you cannot set fast laps. We know it is early days with this package, though, so we need to make sure that we understand the reasons for today and see how we can improve the set-up moving forward.”
He continued by saying:
“Now, it is about focusing on tomorrow. The conditions are likely to be very hot and the tyres need to be managed, so maybe we can make up ground with a good strategy. We will see.”
Stroll is looking to maximize his performance at the Spanish GP.
Aston Martin: Clearly we are disappointed with today's qualifying performance
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack admitted after qualifying that the team was disappointed with how things had turned out. He further mentioned that the high temperatures in Barcelona were partly at fault for the car's underwhelming performance.
“Clearly, we are disappointed with today’s qualifying performance, having successfully got one of our cars through to Q3 in both of the last two Grands Prix - but, with today’s high temperatures, we had oversteer and traction issues. We will now work hard over the next few hours to give ourselves the best possible chance to score points in tomorrow’s race.”
While the new upgrades have not given Aston Martin the boost it was hoping for, it remains to be seen what kind of an impact they will have in the long run.
