Aston Martin is poised to become the first Formula 1 team to run its new-spec car for the 2022 season after arranging a shakedown for Friday.
Haas revealed a render of an early-spec VF-22 last week while Red Bull presented a basic model of its RB18 during a virtual launch on Wednesday.
Aston Martin presented its AMR22 during a ceremony at its Gaydon headquarters on Thursday and is now set to become the first team to run its new car on track.
Under Formula 1 regulations each team is permitted two ‘filming days’ per year in which running is restricted to 100km and must be carried out on Pirelli’s promotional tyres.
Aston Martin is set to take advantage of that on Friday and run its AMR22 12 days before the first day of pre-season testing.
“We’re shaking down tomorrow and really what we wanted to do is shakedown as early as possible to check the systems out on the car and give us some time between shakedown and the Barcelona test,” said Aston Martin’s Chief Technical Officer Andy Green.
“So that is the reason for shaking down tomorrow, so we have time to react.
“Hopefully we’ll have a good shakedown tomorrow and there’s nothing to react to.
“Because the car is absolutely brand new with no carry over at all, and pre-season testing is really short, and the second test is so close to the first race that it’s going to be almost impossible to react to, we thought it’s going to be good to get a shakedown in before the first test.
“That’s where we came to with the shakedown date, and it just made sense to launch the day before. We have the car, the car’s effectively ready, so that was the logic behind it.”
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