Aston Martin’s 6 greatest moments in Formula 1

A first podium in 70 years

The origins of the Aston Martin F1 team go back to 1991 and Jordan Grand Prix, but only since 2021 has it raced under the Aston Martin name, rekindling the company's Grand Prix activities for the first time since 1960. And it didn’t have to wait long before having something to celebrate. Six races in to that comeback year, Sebastian Vettel scored the team’s first podium finish of its modern era when he was runner-up at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Admittedly, he benefitted from the misfortune of Max Verstappen, who was on course to win the race when he crashed out with five laps to go. By the time the race was red flagged, there were just two laps remaining. It was a standing-start sprint to the finish.

Lewis Hamilton nosed ahead of Sergio Pérez but outbraked himself into the first corner and dropped to 15^th after running wide. This left Pérez to take the chequered flag unchallenged, with Vettel’s Aston Martin coming home in second place.

Pérez becomes a Grand Prix winner

Before it became Aston Martin, the Silverstone-based team ran under the Racing Point name, which memorably had its best moment at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix. For much of that race it looked as if George Russell was going to cruise to victory in his first outing for Mercedes, until a pitstop mix-up saw him go out on the wrong tyres, resulting in a second stop to correct the error.

Earlier in the race, Racing Point driver Sergio Pérez was caught up in a collision that saw him fall to last place, but he battled back to be in a position to profit from Mercedes’ mistake. And he really did. From his 109^th race start, Pérez seized the opportunity to secure both him and his team a first Grand Prix win, becoming the first Mexican driver to win a race since Pedro Rodríguez at the 1970 Belgian Grand Prix.

While Pérez would go on to win another five Grands Prix with Red Bull, Sakir marked the only time Racing Point would be represented on the top step of the podium.

Best of the rest in 2017

Force India built the foundations of its best ever season in 2017 by being consistently in the points for the opening rounds. Sergio Pérez retained his Force India, this year partnered by Esteban Ocon for his first full season in F1, having raced for Manor for the second half of 2016.

Both drivers finished in the points for the first five races, banking a stack of points that would serve them well when fortunes changed later in the season. At Monaco, they were both out of the points, with collisions in subsequent races also taking their toll.

In Azerbaijan the team-mates collided with each other, but still, by the end of 2017 Force India had amassed its best-ever haul of 187 points — enough to match the fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship it achieved a season earlier in what was a golden period for the team.

Fisichella earns Force India’s first Championship points

We delve further into Aston Martin’s ancestry now with its Force India era. The 2009 Belgian Grand Prix threw away the script with both an unusual pole-sitter and an unusual winner. It was Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella who had the advantage on the grid securing the fourth and final pole of his career. Just half a second covered the first nine places, so the race could have gone any way.

Despite maintaining his pace for the race — Fisichella also secured the fastest lap — it would be Kimi Räikkönen who would reach the chequered flag first with the KERS-equipped Ferrari, the only win for the Italian team that season. Fisichella’s second place was still a historic one for Force India, however, since it secured the team’s first ever Championship points.

Frentzen’s audacious Championship challenge

It seemed for a time in 1999 that Heinz-Harald Frentzen might seriously challenge for both the Drivers’ Title and the Constructors’ Championship for Jordan. It was the season in which he scored two of his three career wins, at that year’s French and Italian Grands Prix, and consistently scored points throughout the year.

Going into the European Grand Prix, McLaren’s Mika Häkkinen and Ferrari’s Eddie Irvine were equal in the points standings, but misfortune for both drivers — Häkkinen had swapped to wet tyres for what proved a short shower while Irvine suffered a slow pitstop — meant they were running outside of the points. As things were, Frentzen could have come out of that encounter as joint leader, but retirement sadly robbed him of that opportunity. He didn’t recover, ultimately finishing third in the Drivers’ Championship, but he took everyone on quite a ride in the process.

Hill delivers Jordan delight

Jordan Grand Prix made its F1 debut in 1991, but its finest hour came at an incident-packed Belgian Grand Prix in 1998. The iconic Spa-Francorchamps had been deluged with rain, but the race went ahead as scheduled with no safety car.

Unsurprisingly, within 15 seconds of the start 13 cars were scattered across the track as a result of a huge pile-up. Wheels, bodywork and broken cars scattered across the wet tarmac, and when the race restarted there were just eight cars left in the running.

The two yellow Jordans of Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher, who had qualified third and eighth, respectively, found themselves up front in the team’s 125^th Grand Prix. A shot at outright victory for the first time ever now looked likely. With Schumacher challenging Hill for the lead, Eddie Jordan imposed team order to prevent the pair taking each other out in the wet conditions, leaving Hill to chalk up the team’s first ever win.

The 2025 Festival of Speed takes place on 10^th-13^th July. Friday and Saturday tickets are now sold out, but Thursday and limited Sunday tickets are still available.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.