Can Aston Martin further develop the Mercedes copy in 2021?

The pink Mercedes

Racing Point flew out of the starting blocks last season, and that was not surprising. The team might have copied a little more from Mercedes than the competition would have liked, and so had valuable information from the then six-time world champions.

This was also reflected in the final ranking, where Racing Point finished fourth. In fact, if you add back the 15 points deducted by the FIA ​​at the start of the season, Racing Point even ends up ahead of McLaren. Most of that tally was from Sergio Perez with his 125 points.

In that regard, Aston Martin loses the best driver of their team, but with the arrival of Sebastian Vettel, they do win a four-time world champion. He should be able to pull the strings, whereas Stroll as a young driver still has to take some steps to really be of value in a whole year.

The power of Perez

However, Aston Martin can live on a great basis, as the copied design made Perez fourth among the drivers, despite having to cancel two races due to having coronavirus. He was replaced by Nico Hulkenberg during those races who scored six points. The German would also come in one more time, but for Stroll in the GP of the Eifel.

The RP20 was, especially in the hands of Perez, a great weapon. The Mexican finished in the points every race, something only Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton could do. Perez retired twice, but twice with the same problem. His engine broke down in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, and that makes us think.

Where Mercedes only ran into problems once with their own engine (Valtteri Bottas during the GP of the Eifel), Racing Point had four outages in 2020. Perez in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, Stroll in Austria and Nico Hulkenberg couldn't start his first race at Silverstone due to an engine problem.

"Best of the rest"

So it seems that Racing Point will have to make some changes around the engine to prevent these problems in 2021. In the hands of Perez, the car was the best of the midfield, finishing in points every time. The question is what Vettel and Stroll can do with the same car.

Stroll clearly had more trouble with the RP20 in 2020. He was out three times due to incidents caused by himself or someone else, and also had a flat tyre. Stroll eventually scored 75 points. 50 less than his teammate who drove even one race less.

Also in the hands of the Canadian, however, the quality of the RP20 showed. Stroll also finished only once outside the points (P13 during the Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna) and was on the podium twice. However, the gap that Perez leaves behind puts enormous pressure on Vettel and Stroll. If well developed by the team, the car is good enough for P3 for the constructors, but will they also push it out in 2021?

This article was written and originally published by Tim on the Dutch edition of GPblog.com.