Okay, so Aston Martin has an excuse for it’s surprising dip in Formula 1 standings, but not so much for Williams.
- Two scoreless Formula 1 teams are scratching their heads more than most after two rounds of 2022: Aston Martin and Williams.
- Aston Martin and Williams, who finished seventh and eight in the F1 Constructors’ Championship, are scoreless in 2022.
- Aston Martin, to their credit, has raced this season without its top driver, as Sebastian Vettel missed races in both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia after a positive COVID-19 test.
After the opening pair of Formula 1 races, eight of the 10 teams are on the board with points.
And, encouragingly, no team looks like being in the predicament that has faced some teams—most recently Haas F1 Team in 2021—of being up the creek without a paddle. No teams appears to be hopelessly off the pace.
Still, there are two scoreless teams scratching their heads more than most after two rounds of 2022: Aston Martin and Williams.
For Aston Martin, it has been a particularly grim start to the campaign.
The team was without four-time champion Sebastian Vettel for the opening pair of events after he returned a positive COVID test. He is expected to return for Australia, but faces playing catch-up on his rivals.
While there was a Vettel-shaped hole at the team at Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, he was not exactly the missing piece of the puzzle. The AMR22 was off the pace and neither Lance Stroll nor stand-in Nico Hulkenberg found a way to get into the points. Billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll stood between his cars on Row 9 and 10 on the prerace Bahrain grid looking every bit as concerned as one might expect.
“The car is not where we want it to be,” said Aston Martin’s new team principal Mike Krack during the build-up in Saudi Arabia. “The performance is not good enough. So we have tried to bring some upgrades, we are trying to go quite aggressive in the development in the weeks and months to come to catch up because we need to do a lot of catching up to, to move where we want to be. So, yeah, it’s a challenge that we have to face. But we will bring parts for every race.”
Lance Stroll is looking for his first points of the 2022 season.
Peter J FoxGetty Images
Aston Martin again left Saudi Arabia empty-handed and a downbeat Lance Stroll—never the most communicative or gregarious of racers—quipped, “I think we’ve just gotta keep working for the next few races.”
Hulkenberg joked that as a “rusty old guy” he was glad to simply finish but it was another day where the AMR22 was fundamentally just too slow.
Aston Martin has grand ambitions for its Formula 1 project, with the aim of contending for championships within five years, and there are big plans at its Silverstone base. But the start to the sport’s new era has been bleak for the green team.
Williams has more modest short- and medium-term ambitions, but it too has had a troubled start to the new season.
In Bahrain, Williams was among the backmarker group but that both Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi were pleasantly surprised by the performance spoke volumes about their expectations heading into the weekend. In Saudi Arabia, Albon and Latifi both finished the weekend by leaving their mechanics with repair jobs.
Albon tried to grab track position from Stroll late on but found his path blocked by the
Nicholas Latifi
Lars BaronGetty Images
Canadian, sending the two cars into a collision. Not only that, but stewards deemed Albon the guilty party, and he’ll start the Australian Grand Prix three places back from wherever he qualifies—meaning his weekend is already compromised before he even thinks about the day-long flight to Melbourne.
“It is tricky,” Albon said of Williams’ FW44. “When it is in the window, it’s fine, it’s actually a good car to drive. We’ve had moments of that so far, even at the end of the race we were pretty quick, it’s just trying to get it more consistent and predictable really.”
By contrast, teammate Latifi had a horror show. Latifi spun into the barriers during the early stages of qualifying and was alone at the back of the race when he smacked the wall after just 14 laps.
“The rear just let go, it’s unpredictable,” said Latifi. “It’s what we’ve been finding with this car so far, it’s very unpredictable, the balance is all over the place, there’s no secret there. But as the driver, it’s my job to try and get the most out of it and drive it. Two times I’ve put it in the wall and not what I expect from myself.”
Latifi accepted Williams has “not started off where we hoped to be” in 2022 but that he in particular was on the back foot.
“I’m struggling a lot with the balance of the car,” Latifi said. “It’s one thing to just have the pace we’re at, lacking overall downforce, it’s another thing where you’re at and then balance wise it’s all over the pace. There’s where I am.”
It would be a massive surprise if either Aston Martin or Williams went the entire season without taking points, but at this early stage it’s these two teams that look least likely to score top 10s.
F1 Constructors’ Standings
- Ferrari 78
- Mercedes 38
- Red Bull 37
- Alpine 16
- Haas 12
- Alfa Romeo 9
- AlphaTauri 8
- McLaren 6
- Aston Martin 0
- Williams 0
Keyword: Something Is Terribly Wrong as Aston Martin and Williams Are Early F1 Backmarkers