Aston Martin baffled by fiery brakes and dodgy gearbox as new season woes continue

Aston Martin

Aston Martin baffled by fiery brakes and dodgy gearbox as new season woes continue

Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel both suffered the same issues in Imola

Ian Parkes

Monday 19 April 2021 18:00

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Aston Martin has been left baffled by the brake and gearbox issues that blighted its Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Both the AMR21s of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll suffered from overheating brakes on their way to grid, with the right-rear on the latter's car, in particular, catching fire.

While mechanics managed to repair Stroll's car that allowed him to take his place on the grid, they ran out of time with Vettel who was forced to start from the pitlane.

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During the race, both cars also suffered from gearbox problems, with the difficulties now resulting in a deep-dive investigation by the team.

Asked about the brakes after the race, team principal Otmar Szafnauer said: "We still don't know. We'll get all the data on the laps to grid.

"What happened is we overheated the rear brakes, and the laps to the grid weren't at the normal pace we usually go, so we didn't get the airflow.

"But even with that, we were aware of that, the settings were such that they shouldn't have caught fire, but they did, unfortunately.

"We overheated them but we don't know why and how."

As to the gearbox, which both Stroll and Vettel complained about over the radio, Szafnauer added: "There are some indicators.

"It seemed that every time we passed the start-finish line we lost the synchronisation of the gearbox. There are some clues but we still don't know why."

Stroll managed to finish seventh by the chequered flag, although was later demoted to eighth via a five-second time penalty for overtaking AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly by cutting the Tamburello chicane.

Despite the issues with the brakes and gearbox, Stroll was just relieved to get to the finish and claim a few points.

"The guys did a good job at repairing the car," said Stroll. "The brakes were on fire during the formation laps and then I had a gear shift problem throughout the race.

"We need to look into that. That was costing me a lot of lap time, so we had some issues during the race but we pulled it together to come home, so happy."