Vettel: When you squeeze the wheel of this car, you feel its history

This weekend the Aston Martin team celebrates the 100th anniversary of the brand’s first participation in the French Grand Prix, and in honor of the important event Sebastian Vettel raced the Le Castellet circuit in the very old TT1 of the 1922 model. .

This very first Aston Martin race car was once nicknamed “Green Pea”, and on July 15 of that year two such cars – TT1 and TT2 – started the race in Strasbourg. By today’s standards it was more of an endurance race as the participants had to complete 60 laps of 13.38 km each and the total distance was over 800 km. The winner of that historic Grand Prix, Felice Nazzaro, drove a Fiat 804 and covered the distance in 6 hours, 17 minutes and 17 seconds.

But the Aston Martin cars didn’t make it to the finish, the best of them could do 44 laps and stopped due to engine failure, but these are old things. And today Sebastian not only got behind the wheel of a historic car, but even adapted a suit in the fashion of the time in memory of the events of the distant past.

Sebastian Vettel: “It is a great honor to drive a car that started exactly 100 years ago in the French Grand Prix. The “Green Pea” holds a special place in Aston Martin’s heritage and when you squeeze the steering wheel of this car you can literally feel its entire hundred-year history.

The racing spirit and the will to win is what sets Aston Martin apart, and it’s great that we brought this car here this weekend: the historic heritage of our brand is combined with the latest technological developments, embodied in the modern AMR22.

The very first Aston Martin race was equipped with a 1486 cc engine that developed 55 hp. at 4200 rpm. Strangely enough, the car weighed only 750 kg – 45 kg lighter than a modern Formula 1 car – and the top speed was just under 140 km/h.