Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition review

Mostly, though, I see one particular line in the Aston’s accompanying press release. The task here was to improve lap times without compromising the Vantage’s on-road capabilities. ‘Notably,’ goes the release, ‘it would do so without the fitment of aggressively track-optimised tyres.’

Which is not very GT3 at all. The point being, the Vantage F1 Edition – despite its seemingly unambiguous branding – isn’t really an uncompromising track day car at all. Think of it instead as an everyday sports car with added purpose.

Does it look oddly familiar? Try adding in the mind’s eye a flashing light bar to its roof and a string of Formula 1 cars in its wake, all weaving furiously. Aston Martin is sharing F1 safety and medical car duties with Mercedes-AMG this season, which is why at certain races you’ll spot a DBX lurking at the end of the pit lane and a Vantage leading the pack when someone’s had a whoopsie.

To earn its place at the head of the F1 pack, Aston’s engineers made extensive powertrain, chassis and aero upgrades to the Vantage and now those upgrades have been made available to road car buyers as well. The Vantage F1 Edition isn’t a limited-run model (which is at least one thing it has in common with the GT3) and at £145,500 – a relatively modest £21,100 more than the basic car – it’s likely to win over a significant proportion of new Vantage customers – perhaps, suggests Aston Martin, the majority of them.

Compared to said Vantage, now already into its fourth year, the F1 Edition gains a little more power (528bhp, up from 503bhp) with the same peak torque output of 505lb ft, though sustained over a wider rev band. The eight-speed auto now cuts torque during upshifts to reduce shift times and, we’re told, increase the ‘feeling of directness and precision’ while moving both up and down the ratios.

Additional underbody bracing adds stiffness to the car’s structure, while the dampers have been reworked to improve body control without harming ride comfort. The rear springs are stiffer, while the steering has been optimised to improve feel and response. The tyres are road-biased Pirelli P Zeros, now wrapping themselves around 21-inch wheels (up from 20) on both axles, with a reduced profile to further improve handling precision.

Lastly, the new Vantage comes with a revised aero package featuring a sizeable rear wing, a bigger front splitter and dive planes that between them generate 200kg of downforce at the car’s 195mph top speed, though anyone actually thinking of going around corners at such speeds probably needs their head examining. The 0-62mph run takes 3.6 seconds.

It has presence, the F1 Edition. From a purely aesthetic point of view I’d prefer to lose the rear wing, but that really would draw the Porsche comparisons now we know the 911 GT3 Touring is imminent. How about the manual gearbox? Sorry, Aston quietly dropped those from the Vantage line-up after new boss Tobias Moers joined the firm. But you can have an F1 Edition Roadster if you like. Interestingly, the newer ‘Vane’ grille is standard equipment here, meaning you won’t ever see an F1 Edition with the slightly awkward original ‘Hunter’ grille. Read into that what you will.

The cabin has a cosy, high-sided feel that’s familiar from the normal Vantage, plus supportive seats, plenty of soft-touch leather and the same messy smattering of buttons across the dash. The ageing infotainment system does its job, but not without feeling like it should be retired soon. The slightly squared-off steering wheel with suede inserts feels surprisingly good in your hands.

The most sporting Vantage yet? Aston says so and you feel it right away. There’s a sense of tautness, of any slack having been wrung out. And yet, somehow, the ride quality in the softest of the three damper modes is very good indeed. The Vantage F1 Edition glides along the road feeling like a cross between a languid grand tourer and a more singularly focused sports car, never crashing over scarred patches of asphalt nor jarring your spine over bumps.

In the steering, too, you sense the extra precision. The nose jinks this way and that, the body rolling hardly at all. Though the wheel doesn’t chatter in your fingertips you intuit the grip beneath you, meaning you lean hard on the front end corner after corner. Perhaps the single biggest dynamic improvement over the basic Vantage is in body control over crests and through sharp compressions, because rather than continue to rise after the former and squeeze itself hard into the road in the latter, the F1 Edition tracks the shape of the road more closely than any other Vantage. It means you drive the car hard, feeling confident and assured.

There is plenty of grip from those Pirellis for the highway and strong traction as well. In poor weather they’ll continue to bite and claw traction from the surface where a more aggressive tyre, such as the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 fitted to the 911 GT3, would begin to slip and skate.

This is an altogether keener and more responsive machine than the existing Vantage, but if its little extra power makes it feel faster in a straight line, I’m afraid I missed it. What you can’t miss is the urgency of the 4-litre twin-turbo V8, which has the muscle of a turbocharged engine but much of the response and linearity of a naturally aspirated one. The turbos do sadly muffle the soundtrack, so rather than some rumbling V8 score you hear flatulent parps and pops from the exhaust. Meanwhile, the revised auto does feel a touch quicker and more responsive, meaning you no longer pine for a dual-clutch transmission to add some snap to proceedings.

Compared to the Mercedes-AMG GT R he’s spent the last coupe of seasons pedalling, F1 safety car driver Bernd Mayländer will have found a less aggressive machine in his new Aston Martin. On track the Vantage F1 Edition doesn’t generate the same resolute cornering grip as does the AMG on its track-biased tyres, and nor does it marshal its mass with the same iron-clad control in bends.

But the Aston is very far from out of its depth on circuit. At the end of a long track day you’d be left ruing only the P Zero tyres that do overheat. I suspect the standard equipment cast iron brakes would go the same way as the rubber, though the optional carbon ceramic stoppers (£7345) that were fitted here showed no sign of wilting during my laps of the small Stowe circuit at Silverstone.

Over the limit of grip, this Vantage F1 Edition is as manageable as they come. To make it slide gracefully you do need to stick it into a bend with some commitment, then stand on the throttle unapologetically. Do so and you’ll feel the rear swing around in the most progressive and predictable way, wheels spinning as smoke pours from the tyres.

How clever Aston Martin has been to make the Vantage F1 Edition so much sharper on the road and keener on circuit without it being any more demanding in normal use. This is by some margin the Vantage you will want – though perhaps not if you’re expecting it to out GT3 the GT3.

Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition 

Engine: 3982cc, V8, twin-turbo

Transmission: 8-speed auto, RWD

Power: 528bhp @ 6000rpm

Torque: 505lb ft @ 2000-5000rpm

Weight: 1670kg (estimated)

Power-to-weight: 316bhp/tonne

0-62mph: 3.6 seconds

Top speed: 195mph

Fuel economy: 24mpg

Price: £145,500

Ti rating: 9/10