Former Aston Martin boss claims struggling team is slower than F2 cars

Former Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer has claimed the struggling F1 team was slower than every F2 car in a straight line at Baku.

The former Aston and Alpine boss was speaking about the Silverstone team's bleak week on the High Performance Podcast after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, noting that the team could theoretically be further forward in their development for 2027 than it appears.

He pointed out that it's possible that Aston are pushing up towards the cost cap figure for 2026 and may be reluctant to actually manufacture and add new parts at this point in the year because of the money they'll cost - meaning that the ideal version of their car (such as it is) may not see the track this year.

It was pointed out that the team are still well down on power thanks to their disappointing Honda engines, at which point Szafnauer made his claim about the team's top speed.

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Does Aston Martin claim really stack up?

In fact, it's only true if you tweak the numbers somewhat. The figures Szafnauer likely saw were the widely publicised FP2 top speeds at the finish line, in which the Astons were indeed slower than all F2 cars had been in qualifying.

Comparing qualifying speeds to free practice speeds makes for a better headline than actual data point, as seen by the fact that the Astons were well above that F2 baseline (316.4km/h) in Saturday's race.

Alonso was also nine seconds faster around a full lap in F1 qualifying than F2 polesitter Alex Dunne.

None of this is to say that Honda have delivered the team a good power unit (they haven't) or that Aston's straight line speed isn't embarrassingly slow (it is), or even that they outperformed every since F2 car. But facts are facts. That's not very High Performance of you, Otmar.

Former Aston Martin boss explains cost cap issues

Szafnauer said on the podcast: "I don't know where they are on the cost cap. If you're close to the cost cap, you may not bring components because they cost a lot, but you will still be working on your wind tunnel model, CFD, all that kind of stuff. "So they may be switching over to 2027 in the fact that they're close to the cost cap, and then they'll start using '27 cost cap, maybe. I don't know."

On the engine power specifically, he added: "It shows in places like Baku. The top speed of the Aston was lower than, I think, the top speed of all the F2 cars. Not lap time, top speed - end of straight."

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