British ultra-luxury car brand Aston Martin will continue to supply official safety and medical cars to the FIA Formula One World Championship during the upcoming 2022 season, including the Vantage safety car.
As F1 prepares for the start of a new era with bold, new technical regulations, Aston Martin is putting the final touches to that car, and the DBX medical car. The cars will support 12 of this year’s F1 races, starting with the long-awaited return of Formula 1 to Melbourne.
Both the specially prepared Vantage and DBX will run in the new 2022 Aston Martin Racing Green that was showcased at the launch of the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One team’s challenger, the AMR22, on 10 February.
The Aston Martin Vantage safety car of 2021 inspired the Vantage F1 Edition, the fastest, most track-focused Vantage to date and the ultimate expression of performance and dynamism.
Driven by the FIA’s appointed driver, the vastly experienced Bernd Mayländer, the official F1 safety car is one-of-a-kind, developed purely for this role by the engineering team at Aston Martin’s headquarters in Gaydon, UK, in collaboration with the FIA.
Using the learning from the Vantages that compete in GT competition across the globe, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Vantage safety car has been adapted for the ultimate speed and handling to perform its important role in F1.
An additional FIA safety car livery, bodyside mounted radio antennas, an LED rear number plate and a bespoke, roof-mounted LED light-bar, developed by Aston Martin, mark it out as the leader of the pack.
Inside the Vantage, the driver and passenger have access to the FIA’s marshalling system, which displays lights corresponding to any warning flags being shown, just as inside the F1 cars themselves, and it’s well covered by cameras inside and out to provide TV footage.
The DBX medical car enjoys an output of 404.5kW and 700Nm of torque which launches it to 100km/h in just 4.5 seconds, and will bring Dr Ian Roberts, the FIA Medical Rescue Coordinator, to the scene of an accident as quickly as possible.
Having the DBX deployed on the best race circuits in the world provides invaluable data for the vehicle dynamics experts at Aston Martin too, with information gathered during F1 race weekends enhancing the evolution of the new DBX 707.
Similarly, the Aston Martin DBX official medical car has been uniquely modified to carry a lot of equipment, from fire extinguishers to a defibrillator and a large medical kit bag. Like the Vantage, the DBX has been fitted with FIA-approved racing seats as well.
It’s also connected to the marshalling system and even TV screens so the doctor can see exactly what is happening in the race as he sits, ready to go, in the pit lane.
The 2022 F1 season starts in Bahrain on 18-20 March. The Aston Martin official safety and medical cars will make their debut at the Formula 1 Heineken Australian Grand Prix on 8-10 April.
