Sunday Job: Aston Martin DBX707 is new F1 medical car

Formula 1 gets a new (and very powerful) medical car

One of the world's most powerful super SUVs has been hired to do work on Sundays.

Ahead of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, the Aston Martin DBX707 has been announced as the official Formula One medical car for the 2023 season.

The DBX707 is taking over from the standard DBX Medical Car that's been serving in the past two F1 seasons. In addition, it's not just the extra horsepower and enhancements made on the transmission, suspension, and brakes that F1 officials are getting. Since the DBX707 will be driven to its limits on the track, the super SUV also gets FIA-approved racing seats with six-point harnesses, as well as specifically-developed Pirelli Pzero tires.

For its season duty, the DBX707 Medical Car is also equipped with fire extinguishers, medical bags, and a defibrillator. Passengers also have access to communications from Race Control, and be able to see not only the FIA Marshalling system but also biometric data from the F1 drivers and live television images, which will allow early assessment of any incident.

As with previous F1 seasons, the FIA Medical Car will be driven by Alan van der Merwe. Along with the DBX707, Aston Martin also has the Vantage Safety Car serving this season, sharing pacecar duties with the Mercedes AMG GT Black Series with Bernd Maylander onboard.

While the DBX707 is more than capable of responding quickly to incidents, we're hoping it does more safety checks on the track before the race starts and remains sitting pretty on the pitlane while the action unfolds.