THE ANATOMY OF AN ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE F1 SAFETY CAR

Since 2021, Aston Martin has shared Formula 1 safety car duties with AMG. We take a closer look at the most videoed Vantage in the world – and jump at the chance to get behind the wheel ourselves

- by JAMES TAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHY by DOMINIC FRASER

AT THE 1973 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX AT MOSPORT, history was made: the first use of a safety car during a Formula 1 race. When a heavy crash littered the track with debris, a Porsche 914 with yellow flags flying from its rear bumper pulled onto the circuit to pace the field.

It didn't go particularly well; with the running order jumbled following pit-stop chaos and only hand-timed lap charts to rely upon, the Porsche entered the track in the wrong position, allegedly causing eventual winner Peter Revson to gain a lap on the field (and a fair few arguments post-race, not least because Emerson Fittipaldi and Team Lotus believed they had won, and began celebrating accordingly).

Fast-forward to 2025 and things have moved on a little. The safety car has become as integral a part of Formula 1 as pit stops, steward investigations and Netflix docuseries, with manufacturers vying for the opportunity to have their showroom models seen leading the world's fastest race cars around a circuit every other Sunday.

Clearly those cars aren't entirely showroom-spec, of course, so we asked Aston Martin to explain the work it needs to do to turn a regular Vantage into an F1 safety car.

F1 SAFETY CARS: A BRIEF HISTORY

Pace cars in the most literal sense of the term first appeared in oval racing in the US; the tall-geared racers often needed to be pushed to get going and standing starts were rare, so having a course car to pace the field before pulling into the pits was an ideal way to start the race. At certain races, most notably the Indy 500, it would then also return to pace the field during caution periods.