Aston Martin Vantage F1 Edition is an absolute weapon – sharp, tight, fast – without any downsides

ONLY two people normally see Lewis Hamilton in their mirrors.

Max Verstappen and the driver of the F1 safety car.

But whereas Max has a Red Bull with 1,000hp, big wings and sticky tyres to keep Lewis in check, the Aston Martin doesn’t.

It’s a tricked-up Vantage sports car that’ll do Silverstone and Bicester Village on the way home.

Aston will sell you the road-going Vantage F1 Edition — minus the yellow roof lights — for £142,000. A lot of money, yes — but also not a lot of money when you consider this car dances all over the regular Vantage for an extra £20k.

More power, more aero, more everything.

It’s a full 15 seconds faster round the Nurburgring, the legendary playground for car engineers, on road tyres.

Aston boss Tobias Moers said: “Any car that wears an F1 badge has to be truly exceptional. The results speak for themselves.”

I should perhaps explain that Moers is a master engineer poached from Mercedes-AMG a year ago, and he doesn’t do BS. The Vantage F1 Edition is the first Aston under his watch.

So, let’s take a closer look.

We all know the 4-litre twin-turbo V8, supplied by AMG, is one of the finest pieces of automotive engineering on sale today. Full of wallop and an artillery of noise.

Here, power has been hiked to 535 horses (up 25hp), peak torque is sustained for longer, and a torque cut during upshifts adds to the race-car feel.

The chassis has been sprinkled with some Moers magic too.

Stiffer rear springs, re-worked dampers and a thicker undertray to improve bracing across the front end. As well as all sorts of other little tweaks to improve agility. The full-width front splitter and fixed rear wing help to create an extra 200kg of downforce. What does that mean exactly? It increases the load on the tyres for better high-speed cornering.

Now let’s take it for a spin.

Hubba. Hubba. Absolute weapon. Sharper, tighter, faster — without any downsides.

Concentration (and the fear of binning it) kept me safe at first but when you do hurry it, it responds to every input. Like it’s wired to your brain.

Right, we’re friends now. Time for some showboating. Track mode ON, nanny blankets OFF, stamp on the loud pedal and let’s make that rear axle dance.

So controllable. So easy to walk it right out.

You won’t see Bernd Maylander, the F1 safety car driver, drifting around Silverstone today.

Hopefully you won’t see him at all. Otherwise that means it’s got messy.

But if he is called into action, he’s got the tools to keep Max and Lewis and the rest of the F1 grid lapping at speed behind him, while looking seriously cool at the same time.

Good job, Aston.