F1 gets new Aston Martin safety car pairing

We say joining the team because it’ll be sharing safety car duties with a Mercedes-AMG GT R, the safety car racers and spectators alike have become used to in recent years. Mercedes has had safety car duties all to itself for over two decades, with a mega Merc first leading the pack in 1996. This is the first time that the marque will be sharing safety car duties and the first time anything other than a Mercedes has taken on the role. Resplendent in Rote Sau-style red, the Merc pops alongside the muted racing green Vantage.

The Aston, as above, comes with quite the arsenal of Q-sourced aero addenda, including an extended splitter, canards and that big wing. A bit of flashiness comes courtesy of the AMR lurid green highlights on the splitter, side skirts and diffuser.

Mercedes and Aston will be sharing medical car duties too. Alongside the Vantage and the AMG GT R will be Aston’s DBX SUV and Merc’s C63 S Estate. While the DBX is almost as fresh to the market as it is to its role as medical car, the C63 S is very shortly to be replaced with a next-generation model.

The sharing arrangement shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, given the ties between Aston and Mercedes, in addition to the fanfare around Aston’s return to the F1 grid. The only question is, which would you drive to lead a pack of ravenous F1 cars?