A push by the FIA to cut back on downforce for this year, to help ease the stress on tyres, triggered some changes to the floor and bargeboard regulations.
These alterations, which came during a phase when teams had to carry over their 2020 chassis, especially hurt the low rake cars like Mercedes and Aston Martin.
Although Mercedes was able to recover to still win the constructors’ championship, Aston Martin faced a more difficult campaign as it slipped from fourth in 2020 down to seventh this season.
Aston’s team principal Otmar Szafnauer said that his team’s drop was not a surprise, because the Silverstone-based team did not have a performance buffer like Mercedes had to minimise the impact of the downforce loss.
“What’s happened this year confirmed our pre-season worries that the unilateral aerodynamic changes that were made late in the season had a massive effect on us and Mercedes,” he explained.
“Because the midfield was so tight, the lap time that we lost -…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Autosport.com – Formula 1 – Stories…