Aston Martin’s eye-catching new rear wing design doesn’t appear to brought a significant improvement in the car’s performance, says Lance Stroll.
While team mate Sebastian Vettel was eliminated in Q1, Stroll progressed to the next round and claimed a place on the seventh row of the grid. “That’s not what we want, to finish 14th in Q2,” he said afterwards.
Aston Martin was one of several teams to bring a new rear wing design for the Hungaroring, a track which requires maximum downforce. Its unusual endplates attracted the attention of rival teams and questions over whether it was a departure from the designs F1 hoped teams would produce under the 2022 technical regulations.
Stroll said it was “too early to say” how of a difference the new rear wing had made, but admitted that “in terms of position very similar to where we normally are.
“So I would say no, it doesn’t look like it’s the step that we need to really challenge the top of the midfield for getting into Q3. We’ve just got to keep pushing.”
Vettel ended second practice inside the top 1 and ran well in final practice before crashing. “I think yesterday we looked more competitive.” said Stroll, “we just didn’t have enough grip today.
“We’re half a second to six-tenths off being in Q3 – just scraping into Q3, which is not where we want to be.”
He is doubtful the team will be able to make significant gains in the race. “It’s a bit of a track position race here, so it’s tricky,” he said. “But maybe some interesting weather tomorrow, you never know. We’ll see what we can do.”
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