Aston Martin hold discussions with FIA after legal threat

Aston Martin team principal Otmar Szafnauer has confirmed to holding talks with the FIA following his recent claims this season’s regulation changes have unfairly harmed the performance of his team’s cars.

Aston Martin has been left fuming the new rules introduced to help reduce the downforce for safety reasons have harmed teams with low-rake cars, including Aston Martin and Mercedes.

Initially, the regulations were altered as it was believed with the Covid-19 pandemic last year tyre supplier Pirelli would be unable to develop a new construction for this season to cope with the increasing loads.

Eventually, Pirelli was able to introduce new tyres but the rules changes remained in place, leading to Aston Martin questioning the process and hoping a further change could be applied to the regulations now for equitability.

Confirming the talks, Szafnauer said: "We've had a couple of meetings with the FIA and I think at this point we are pretty satisfied that all the correct steps were followed.

"We're still in discussion. We're just trying to discover what all the steps were to make sure it was done properly and equitably, so that's the reason for the discussion."

Asked whether Aston Martin's initial frustration and the legal threat was merely the team trying to make a point to the FIA, Szafnauer added: "We just have to have a good understanding of the entire process and be happy the process is equitable."

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