The Battle of Monaco: Aston Martin Vanquish Takes on Ferrari F12

As we arrived at the picturesque Circuit de Monaco, the tension was palpable. The two contenders, the Aston Martin Vanquish and the Ferrari F12, were ready to put their skills to the test. The Vanquish, with its all-new eight-speed ZF system and V12 engine, was looking to take down the reigning champion, the Ferrari. But would it be enough?

The first part of the challenge was a track inspection, where both drivers had to navigate the circuit and make notes on their preferred lines and braking points. The Vanquish's driver, who wished to remain anonymous, took an early lead with his impressive skills in navigating the treacherous corners of Monaco. "He looked good," the driver said, "but if he marks me down now I'm gonna punch him in the face."

The inspection was followed by a series of tests, including a grass-cutting exercise, where both drivers had to cut through a patch of artificial grass on the track. The Vanquish's driver admitted that this test would be crucial in determining who could adapt best to different conditions. "You modern Formula One drivers are never on the track," he said with a chuckle. "Well, at least we're gonna be equal now."

The final showdown was a head-to-head competition around Monaco's famous Grand Prix circuit. Both drivers took off with launch control, accelerating from 0-62mph in just 3.8 seconds. The Vanquish's driver held their nerve, taking the inside line on the first corner and maintaining a narrow lead throughout the two-lap sprint.

But as they approached the final turn, disaster struck for the Aston Martin. The Vanquish's driver lost control, spinning wheels and losing ground to the Ferrari's driver. "I felt like one of those Texans wild cowboys," he admitted later. "The more impatient I got, the more I spun wheels and lost ground."

Despite the Vanquish's impressive performance, the Ferrari ultimately emerged victorious. The driver grinned triumphantly as they crossed the finish line first. "It was a fair result," he said. "Although the Ferrari has power and abundance sometimes, you can have too much of a good thing. Allowing the more modest Aston to match it in this test."

As we reflected on the day's events, our driver couldn't help but feel exhausted. The Vanquish had given them a run for their money, but ultimately they had been outgunned by the Ferrari's sheer power. "I have to say, it's the first time I've had to stay so wide awake in a straight line," he said with a laugh. "You know, I could wheel spin even in fourth gear."

In the end, the driver decided that if they had their choice of keys, they would drive home in the Aston Martin Vanquish. Despite its weaknesses, it had impressed them with its agility and adaptability. As for driving home in the Ferrari? They thought twice about it. "I think I'd be pretty brave to drive home in the Ferrari," they said with a grin. "But um, I think I'll be safe on the aspect."

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enright then down to business these two gts have been designed to get across continents at warp speed so we're going to assess them both on a trip down to monte carlo the sort of posh destination these cars were built for but we have heard the weather's a bit iffy down there so instead we're going to create our own monte carlo trip right here at rockingham speedway by definition cars like the f-12 and vanquish must be ballistically fast but when one costs 239 000 pounds and the other 193 000 you'd expect more for your money than pure speed test one will discover if they're exciting to listen to and are agile around some beds yes we're heading into the mountains on route to our monte carlo vacation first up comes an alpine tunnel the perfect place to test which car makes the most noise let's face it with cars like these you want to be noticed we'll both head through the tunnel with our cars wound up to 6 000 revs i'll be driving the aston karoon the ferrari and an app on a phone will record the decibel level coming from our mighty pipes tiff might have the best of british engineering but let's be honest you're not going to beat an italian car for sound especially a v12 ferrari have actually fitted special sound pipes from the inlet to the front of the bulkhead so we could really appreciate it right first gear here we go 6 000 rpm let's listen to that oh yeah that's just beautiful music sounds impressive but i've got a v12 as well i've also got some little vowels that open in my exhaust system to make it sound that little bit better come on britain that should sort of italian stallion out and it did because while the f12 recorded a shrill 77.6 decibels the vanquish outshouted it with 78.6 so in the first of our two mini tests the aston is one up next we'll hit some monte carlo style mounted bends to determine agility the ferrari is 70 kilograms lighter than the 599 it's replaced it also has a lower center of gravity it's shorter lower and narrower as well so ferrari have made every effort to make this big gt nimble but aston haven't been idle either this vanquish is 60 kilograms lighter than its predecessor so we're here at tiff's alpine course that he's designed at rockingham um the rules are we have to have all the toys on so the ferrari we've got a wet setting which is quite appropriate for today in which we've got stability and traction control on a maximum setting so let's see how we get on have you got your launch control engaged yep launch control engaged i'm i'm ready to go three two one go under the car starts to slide all the toys kicking in it's just maximum attack in terms of the electronics just working overtime to keep the car stable come on come on come on go go go i'm in control lots of revs even though it's got its traction on oh i'm flat on the power and it's not going anywhere oh holding me back come on i know i've got grip go let me go come on go on i'm straight line into the final chicane now coming towards his flying finish oh understeer understand on 50.69 seconds you do feel in control i have to say like if i was attacking on an alpine road if you were a rookie driver you'd feel pretty safe i'm not sure if you turned it all off what it'd be like my turn all the electronics on and 50.69 seconds to beat three two one go trek start tiffany's played in control lots of understand lots of others it's almost stopped nearly stopped there go no go all breaks lots of abs ticking go oh that looks quite quick through that right hand he's actually accelerating a bit more than mine was very clever these days it's amazing how good these traction systems are though you know he's coming up the last couple of corners now i can see you did a 50.1 it's close you were slower 50.6 was it wow well there you go electronics for the british wins over the entire too complicated that's your travel crew and it's too complicated so as the aston was noisier through the tunnel and quicker around the hairpin bends it wins part one of our monte carlo challenge for our next test we'll be examining how entertaining these cars are to drive because if you get to park with around 200 000 pounds to buy one of these machines you expect to have some fun to switch off that traction control get the tails out and have a drifting competition we'll each get three attempts and to score well the cars must be as sideways as possible through the whole course and maintain a decent speed karim will go first and with a tarmac melting 740 hp at his disposal he won't be short of power okay let's see what you can do with the ferrari it's time to go unusually for a front engine car 54 to the f12's weight is at the back thanks to moving heavy bits of equipment like the gearbox to the rear not what you want when trying to deliberately break traction good well now he's straightened it out oh nice ending nice ending karen all right that was my first attempt let's see the score let's see the score let's see the score seventy seven seven you straightened up too much coming up the hill tried to knock your points all right croon your second attempt remember more sideways up that hill from the left-hander before you flick it right let's see it over there it's a spin oh that didn't go well not only does the f-12 have massive power but massive torque as well and with no traction control to calm things down it was clearly proving a handful ah too much power too soon it's no no just go back to base now i'm not even going to score you on that effort pressure's on now karoon pressure's on so third and final attempt good good good good good good was better was better you just didn't quite get that flick early just understand right where you are now didn't it certain age for that one yeah unfortunately my hand flicked the paddles it went to first gear and went into an understeer driver's excuses excuses oh your turn your turn i'm gonna back it up and give you a shot let me show you carol how it's done so a score of eight to beat now although that ferrari on paper is so much quicker more torque more power when it comes to a slippery surface too much torque it can be embarrassing but it gets the slide going too snappily so i'm hoping this aston's in for another win here we go wish me luck this car's suspension is 15 percent stiffer at the front and 35 percent stiffer at the rear compared to the old vanquish which should improve stability in the bends like the best start snapping oh well i don't know what to say tiff i mean i could give you a three because you got three quarters of the way around a three i did three quarters of the course perfectly and it gives me a three not as aggressive off the line punch straddle catch slide oh bit slow he's quite slow in our first car it wasn't very convincing keep the power in lots of stuff flick it catch it into turn one this is a safe one oh he's looking that's good got it god's it got it nailed it nailed it nailed it he did look good oh if he marks me down now i'm gonna punch him in the face i'm gonna knock some points off because the first one you were really you're crawling into the first left-hander but the right was really good seven i'll give you seven because the right was really good but the first one was a bit weak weak weak i had one last chance to prove the aston could outdo the ferrari oh he's going for it now that's much better oh he's across the glass that was good that was good i bet he'll mark me down for cutting the grass next i'll have to take away a little bit for his grass cuttings i'm gonna i'll give you an eight for that one there was grass cutting you modern formula one drivers you're never on the track well at least we're gonna be equal now we call that a draw ate all you know draw i hate draws okay maybe it was a fair result although the ferrari has power and abundance sometimes you can have too much of a good thing allowing the more modest aston to match it in this test and that means the vanquish is still ahead overall now it's race time because let's face it you can't visit monaco without going head-to-head around its famous grand prix circuit now i've got launch control and i can get to 62 in just 3.8 seconds he's got launch control as well he can get to 62 and if i can hold him out just enough the first corner i might have a chance two laps of the track will decide which is the faster car we've had our playground games now it's the real thing if the f12 wins it will salvage a draw overall but can the less powerful aston humiliate the mighty ferrari and cause a bit of an upset he's gonna go the outside though he can't go around that outside it's slippery he's greasy with a top speed of 201 miles an hour this is the fastest mass-produced aston ever i'm gonna squeeze you out previous fast models have often been let down by slow gearboxes but this vanquish has the all-new eight-speed zf system more gears and quicker changes mean you can get the most from that glorious v12 oh he did the first airplane tiff's got the inside line there's so much power we got the lead the all-important lead it's such a struggle to put all dowers the performance stats for the f-12 are simply mind-blowing the engine red lines are 8 700 revs naught 224 comes up in just 8.5 seconds and there's a top speed of 211 miles an hour by he's still got the inside line i love the feel of this car i don't care it has got as much power i love this girl all right here we go sunshine no no you're not coming through there son oh oh oh oh it's alongside bye bye nidal but i've got the inside for the next he's still going to get mine oh not quite not quite not quite and onto the straight now the straight so wide i don't know how i'm going to block him oh this thing has just so much ground it's unbelievable yes into the lead oh no i can hear how much power it's got oh don't bite me please don't bite me please don't bite me the more impatient i get the more i spin wheels and lose ground he's trying to come back i mean that was that another side big moment come on closer to that ferrari i believe i don't know what this is thrilling terrifying exciting all at the same sky oh i do feel like one of those texans wild cowboy the ferrari's gonna win but the aston gave it a really good run for its buddy and it kept him on his toes that's for sure did you have a moment or two karen that's the most exhausting two laps of my life but uh yep power wins however when you take the other rounds of our monte carlo challenge into account the result is a draw so after a day with these cars which one would we ultimately choose well i can assure you that if the conditions were the same and i had the choice of the keys i would drive home in the aston martin you i have to say it's the first time i've had to stay so wide awake in a straight line because it was just all over the place you know i could wheel spin even in fourth gear yeah i think i'll feel safer driving home in the aston i think i'd be pretty brave to drive home in the ferrari but um i think i'll be safe on the aspect well anyway thank you for your time here thank you are we going to monaco next time of course it was just all the time the ferries were all fully booked next time youright then down to business these two gts have been designed to get across continents at warp speed so we're going to assess them both on a trip down to monte carlo the sort of posh destination these cars were built for but we have heard the weather's a bit iffy down there so instead we're going to create our own monte carlo trip right here at rockingham speedway by definition cars like the f-12 and vanquish must be ballistically fast but when one costs 239 000 pounds and the other 193 000 you'd expect more for your money than pure speed test one will discover if they're exciting to listen to and are agile around some beds yes we're heading into the mountains on route to our monte carlo vacation first up comes an alpine tunnel the perfect place to test which car makes the most noise let's face it with cars like these you want to be noticed we'll both head through the tunnel with our cars wound up to 6 000 revs i'll be driving the aston karoon the ferrari and an app on a phone will record the decibel level coming from our mighty pipes tiff might have the best of british engineering but let's be honest you're not going to beat an italian car for sound especially a v12 ferrari have actually fitted special sound pipes from the inlet to the front of the bulkhead so we could really appreciate it right first gear here we go 6 000 rpm let's listen to that oh yeah that's just beautiful music sounds impressive but i've got a v12 as well i've also got some little vowels that open in my exhaust system to make it sound that little bit better come on britain that should sort of italian stallion out and it did because while the f12 recorded a shrill 77.6 decibels the vanquish outshouted it with 78.6 so in the first of our two mini tests the aston is one up next we'll hit some monte carlo style mounted bends to determine agility the ferrari is 70 kilograms lighter than the 599 it's replaced it also has a lower center of gravity it's shorter lower and narrower as well so ferrari have made every effort to make this big gt nimble but aston haven't been idle either this vanquish is 60 kilograms lighter than its predecessor so we're here at tiff's alpine course that he's designed at rockingham um the rules are we have to have all the toys on so the ferrari we've got a wet setting which is quite appropriate for today in which we've got stability and traction control on a maximum setting so let's see how we get on have you got your launch control engaged yep launch control engaged i'm i'm ready to go three two one go under the car starts to slide all the toys kicking in it's just maximum attack in terms of the electronics just working overtime to keep the car stable come on come on come on go go go i'm in control lots of revs even though it's got its traction on oh i'm flat on the power and it's not going anywhere oh holding me back come on i know i've got grip go let me go come on go on i'm straight line into the final chicane now coming towards his flying finish oh understeer understand on 50.69 seconds you do feel in control i have to say like if i was attacking on an alpine road if you were a rookie driver you'd feel pretty safe i'm not sure if you turned it all off what it'd be like my turn all the electronics on and 50.69 seconds to beat three two one go trek start tiffany's played in control lots of understand lots of others it's almost stopped nearly stopped there go no go all breaks lots of abs ticking go oh that looks quite quick through that right hand he's actually accelerating a bit more than mine was very clever these days it's amazing how good these traction systems are though you know he's coming up the last couple of corners now i can see you did a 50.1 it's close you were slower 50.6 was it wow well there you go electronics for the british wins over the entire too complicated that's your travel crew and it's too complicated so as the aston was noisier through the tunnel and quicker around the hairpin bends it wins part one of our monte carlo challenge for our next test we'll be examining how entertaining these cars are to drive because if you get to park with around 200 000 pounds to buy one of these machines you expect to have some fun to switch off that traction control get the tails out and have a drifting competition we'll each get three attempts and to score well the cars must be as sideways as possible through the whole course and maintain a decent speed karim will go first and with a tarmac melting 740 hp at his disposal he won't be short of power okay let's see what you can do with the ferrari it's time to go unusually for a front engine car 54 to the f12's weight is at the back thanks to moving heavy bits of equipment like the gearbox to the rear not what you want when trying to deliberately break traction good well now he's straightened it out oh nice ending nice ending karen all right that was my first attempt let's see the score let's see the score let's see the score seventy seven seven you straightened up too much coming up the hill tried to knock your points all right croon your second attempt remember more sideways up that hill from the left-hander before you flick it right let's see it over there it's a spin oh that didn't go well not only does the f-12 have massive power but massive torque as well and with no traction control to calm things down it was clearly proving a handful ah too much power too soon it's no no just go back to base now i'm not even going to score you on that effort pressure's on now karoon pressure's on so third and final attempt good good good good good good was better was better you just didn't quite get that flick early just understand right where you are now didn't it certain age for that one yeah unfortunately my hand flicked the paddles it went to first gear and went into an understeer driver's excuses excuses oh your turn your turn i'm gonna back it up and give you a shot let me show you carol how it's done so a score of eight to beat now although that ferrari on paper is so much quicker more torque more power when it comes to a slippery surface too much torque it can be embarrassing but it gets the slide going too snappily so i'm hoping this aston's in for another win here we go wish me luck this car's suspension is 15 percent stiffer at the front and 35 percent stiffer at the rear compared to the old vanquish which should improve stability in the bends like the best start snapping oh well i don't know what to say tiff i mean i could give you a three because you got three quarters of the way around a three i did three quarters of the course perfectly and it gives me a three not as aggressive off the line punch straddle catch slide oh bit slow he's quite slow in our first car it wasn't very convincing keep the power in lots of stuff flick it catch it into turn one this is a safe one oh he's looking that's good got it god's it got it nailed it nailed it nailed it he did look good oh if he marks me down now i'm gonna punch him in the face i'm gonna knock some points off because the first one you were really you're crawling into the first left-hander but the right was really good seven i'll give you seven because the right was really good but the first one was a bit weak weak weak i had one last chance to prove the aston could outdo the ferrari oh he's going for it now that's much better oh he's across the glass that was good that was good i bet he'll mark me down for cutting the grass next i'll have to take away a little bit for his grass cuttings i'm gonna i'll give you an eight for that one there was grass cutting you modern formula one drivers you're never on the track well at least we're gonna be equal now we call that a draw ate all you know draw i hate draws okay maybe it was a fair result although the ferrari has power and abundance sometimes you can have too much of a good thing allowing the more modest aston to match it in this test and that means the vanquish is still ahead overall now it's race time because let's face it you can't visit monaco without going head-to-head around its famous grand prix circuit now i've got launch control and i can get to 62 in just 3.8 seconds he's got launch control as well he can get to 62 and if i can hold him out just enough the first corner i might have a chance two laps of the track will decide which is the faster car we've had our playground games now it's the real thing if the f12 wins it will salvage a draw overall but can the less powerful aston humiliate the mighty ferrari and cause a bit of an upset he's gonna go the outside though he can't go around that outside it's slippery he's greasy with a top speed of 201 miles an hour this is the fastest mass-produced aston ever i'm gonna squeeze you out previous fast models have often been let down by slow gearboxes but this vanquish has the all-new eight-speed zf system more gears and quicker changes mean you can get the most from that glorious v12 oh he did the first airplane tiff's got the inside line there's so much power we got the lead the all-important lead it's such a struggle to put all dowers the performance stats for the f-12 are simply mind-blowing the engine red lines are 8 700 revs naught 224 comes up in just 8.5 seconds and there's a top speed of 211 miles an hour by he's still got the inside line i love the feel of this car i don't care it has got as much power i love this girl all right here we go sunshine no no you're not coming through there son oh oh oh oh it's alongside bye bye nidal but i've got the inside for the next he's still going to get mine oh not quite not quite not quite and onto the straight now the straight so wide i don't know how i'm going to block him oh this thing has just so much ground it's unbelievable yes into the lead oh no i can hear how much power it's got oh don't bite me please don't bite me please don't bite me the more impatient i get the more i spin wheels and lose ground he's trying to come back i mean that was that another side big moment come on closer to that ferrari i believe i don't know what this is thrilling terrifying exciting all at the same sky oh i do feel like one of those texans wild cowboy the ferrari's gonna win but the aston gave it a really good run for its buddy and it kept him on his toes that's for sure did you have a moment or two karen that's the most exhausting two laps of my life but uh yep power wins however when you take the other rounds of our monte carlo challenge into account the result is a draw so after a day with these cars which one would we ultimately choose well i can assure you that if the conditions were the same and i had the choice of the keys i would drive home in the aston martin you i have to say it's the first time i've had to stay so wide awake in a straight line because it was just all over the place you know i could wheel spin even in fourth gear yeah i think i'll feel safer driving home in the aston i think i'd be pretty brave to drive home in the ferrari but um i think i'll be safe on the aspect well anyway thank you for your time here thank you are we going to monaco next time of course it was just all the time the ferries were all fully booked next time you\n"