Pretty much the only time you’ll have seen an Aston Martin leading the Formula 1 field over the last couple of years is when there’s been an off and the Vantage is doing safety car duties. Anyway, with that predictable jibe out of the way, here’s a new one that, if someone falls foul of Zandvoort’s twists and turns at the Dutch Grand Prix this weekend, will be filling that role once again.
It’s the lightly uprated Vantage S, which sees power lifted from the standard car’s 656bhp to 671bhp, dropping the 0-62mph time a tenth to 3.4 seconds. It brings a few chassis and suspension tweaks too, including revised camber, toe and caster angles, a new calibration for the Bilstein DTX adaptive dampers, and a rear subframe bolted directly to the body.
Aston Martin Vantage S safety car – rear
As has been the case since the Vantage first joined the Mercedes-AMG GT as one of the official F1 safety cars a few years ago, the one piloted by Bernd Mayländer gets a few extra goodies not offered to Joe Public.
Most notably, they include a big ol’ rear wing that’ll help push the Vantage a little harder into the track when it’s whizzing round with many angry, bewinged F1 cars in its rear view mirrors.
Aston Martin Vantage S safety car – side
Mayländer, who’s been F1’s official safety car driver since 2000, said: “I’m delighted to be one of the very first to drive the Vantage S and look forward to experiencing the world’s greatest circuits in the most performance focused Vantage to date.”
First ready to be deployed in the Netherlands this weekend, the Vantage S will continue splitting its duties with Merc’s latest safety car, the AMG GT Black Series. At races where it’s being used, the DBX707 will continue in its role as the medical car – although we wouldn’t be surprised to see that replaced by the even more rapid DBX S before long.
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