New Aston Martin LMP1

[Jules G]

So, the AMR One has moved under its own steam this week. Two short tests inc 20 laps at Snetterton at the weekend, plus a run up the hill at Goodwood. I have to say it looks pretty ugly outside of the studio. It looks long, very slab sided and the nose looks very unfortunate. Paint scheme looks bad too.
 Car was said to be very unfinished and seriously lacked power.

Oh well, never mind.

Anyway, a sixth driver has been announced... Christian Klien will join Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke in#007 whilst Adrian Fernandez, Andy Meyrick and Harold Primat will drive #008.

First race at Ricard in a few weeks. I think its going to be a dissapointment sadly.

Nice to see Chester's very own Andy Meyrick joining Aston for 2011.

[Barry]

Oh dear, did Bangle help design it?
It looks like it's been beaten into submission with the ugly stick.

[knetter]

Without the shark fin structure, it would look pretty half decent

[Lazy B'stard]

Oh dear, did Bangle help design it?
It looks like it's been beaten into submission with the ugly stick.

No, but I'd like to see who styled the new Panos that raced at Sebring. Now that is an ugly car!

[Andy Zarse]

First race at Ricard in a few weeks. I think its going to be a dissapointment sadly.

Difficult to say...

Third place out of the box is pretty good. But five laps down in eight hours is pretty off the race pace.

[Lazy B'stard]

First race at Ricard in a few weeks. I think its going to be a dissapointment sadly.

Difficult to say...

Third place out of the box is pretty good. But five laps down in eight hours is pretty off the race pace.

It was pretty poor really. 6 seconds a lap slower than the class pole sitter on a short circuit is not a good omen. It was on the same pace as a FLM car all weekend. it looked slow on outright pace and the handling looked really bad all weekend.

much to do in the next 9 weeks then.

[Jules G]

Maybe they should have stuck the the Lola chassis rather than going it alone with an in house design

[Nordic]

Fingers crossed prodrive can turn it around, otherwise I can see them pulling the plug on it rather than do a rocketsports.

The car is very new and had hardly turned a wheel before sunday.

[Lazy B'stard]

The car is very new and had hardly turned a wheel before sunday.

And so was Highcrofts car before Sebring. It finished second. A new car is always going to be a few seconds off the pace when its box fresh, until the team hones it into shape, but I feel that even with lots of work its still going to be way off the pace. Thats if they get it reliable, but I also have a bad feeling about that little engine too.

I really want this new Aston to do well, but from the first glimpse a few weeks I thought oh-oh. It just doesn't look right in the flesh or on paper. I know it has some radical thinking behind it but its just too ambitious for such an inexperienced team.

There was talk at the weekend of the new Pug being 3 seconds per lap faster in the middle section alone than the fastest petrol car. I'm affraid our ugly Aston is going to get slaughtered come june. My gut feeling is that they will both be out by quarter distance at Le Mans.

[geoffd]

The car is very new and had hardly turned a wheel before sunday.

And so was Highcrofts car before Sebring. It finished second.

Hardly true comparison, in reality the HPD was a development of the cars that have been raced in LMP1 or 2 for a number of years, whilst the Aston is a ground up new build.

But...  they do need to do some serious testing before Spa, let alone LM.  At least they have two cars built, I hope they have plenty of engines too! Maybe they have bit off more than they can chew for the moment.

[Le Vieux]

The car is very new and had hardly turned a wheel before sunday.

And so was Highcrofts car before Sebring. It finished second. A new car is always going to be a few seconds off the pace when its box fresh, until the team hones it into shape, but I feel that even with lots of work its still going to be way off the pace. Thats if they get it reliable, but I also have a bad feeling about that little engine too.

I really want this new Aston to do well, but from the first glimpse a few weeks I thought oh-oh. It just doesn't look right in the flesh or on paper. I know it has some radical thinking behind it but its just too ambitious for such an inexperienced team.

There was talk at the weekend of the new Pug being 3 seconds per lap faster in the middle section alone than the fastest petrol car. I'm affraid our ugly Aston is going to get slaughtered come june. My gut feeling is that they will both be out by quarter distance at Le Mans.

Precisely.  I couldn't have put it better myself.  Although Highcroft, Peugeot and Audi have developments of new cars, they seem to be somewhere near the pace immediately, whereas Aston are a long way behind - further than we might expect even with a brand new car.

I just hope they stick with it.  2011 will probably turn out to be part of a learning curve, leading, I hope, to a successful 2012.

[landman]

Having heard George Howard-Chappell speak on Radio Le Mans twice recently it sounds like 2011 is development year so that they get a decent run against the tractor-boys in 2012.

[Rhino]

And i'm sure they said they had to turn the engine boost down for reliability

[Lazy B'stard]

And i'm sure they said they had to turn the engine boost down for reliability

Which is worrying as even with the wick turned right up they were nowhere near the 550bhp+ they were hoping for. That car has pretty clever aero but its going to need some serious oomph to make good use of it.

[Barry]

Prehaps they ought to stick a V12 in the back.