Aston Martin reveals ‘specially-equipped’ Vantage F1 safety car

Described as a ‘specially-equipped version’, the safety car visually features a more prominent splitter and a large rear spoiler which appears to be borrowed from the outgoing V12 Vantage. What is available to order on the new Vantage road car however is the colour, which is Aston Martin Racing Green, to match the F1 team’s AMR24 F1 challengers.

Aston says that underneath the car didn’t need any upgrades to make it suitable for the high-speed requirements of safety car duty. The new Vantage packs some 30 per cent more power than the outgoing car, so that’s not such a surprise. But apart from power, the road car’s cooling and braking hardware was also considered perfectly up to the job. ‘It was born for this role’, Aston’s statement reads.

On the inside, there are obviously a few differences to the road car, namely the bucket seats with four-point harnesses, the roll cage and indeed, the specialised screens and monitoring equipment. On the outside, it obviously also has an array of flashing LED lights.

“My first impressions were very positive as I could immediately feel the improvement in handling and, of course, power,” said Bernd Maylander, F1 safety car driver.

“We need a car that is fast and focused so we can respond quickly and safely when we receive the call for on-track deployment and Vantage provides that.”

In the past the Vantage has received criticism from drivers for not being able to go at a pace the F1 cars following are happy with, in terms of managing temperatures in their tyres and powertrains, so the new car should appear as a welcome over-correction.

The last safety car also spawned a popular Vantage F1 Edition road car, featuring performance and driver-focused revisions, as well as some aero upgrades related to that of the safety car. Can we expect an F1 Edition of the new Vantage, complete with that splitter and V12 Vantage wing? That’s far from the realms of impossibility, we’d wager.