Publicity-shy businessman Lawrence Stroll has placed himself at the helm of Aston Martin's Formula 1 effort. Damien Smith grabs some rare insight. Aston Martin's return to Formula 1 this year, for the first time since a brief and ill-starred cameo in 1960, hasn't exactly been a raging success. Last season, as Racing Point, the team fought McLaren all year for best-of-the-rest honours behind Mercedes-AMG and Red Bull, losing that battle for third in the teams' standings but at least winning a grand prix, thanks to Sergio Perez in Bahrain. Now regenerated in Aston Martin green, the team has four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in place of Perez, but it has slipped down the grid. It has placed the blame on a winter aerodynamic rules change that robbed its car (and that of Mercedes, with which it's in close alliance) of vital downforce.
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