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Newey is ready for Aston Martin, but is it ready for him?

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Aston Martin’s expected confirmation later this morning that it has signed design legend Adrian Newey is a game-changing moment for the team.

For if there is one individual who has a bit of a midas touch, then Newey – having helped guide his three most recent teams (Williams, McLaren and Red Bull) to multiple championship success – would be your prime candidate.

His tally of 12 constructors’ titles, with 13 drivers’ championships having been won in his cars, says all you need to know about his influence.

But success in F1 is never down to just one individual. The greatest geniuses in the world will never achieve success if they do not have the right people and infrastructure around them.

Even someone as brilliant as Newey needs access to the most modern facilities and technology, and to have around them a strong calibre of staff who can manifest ideas and guidance into reality.

This is something that Newey himself will have been more than well aware of, and it probably explains a great deal about why he wanted a factory visit – taking place in secret before the Spanish Grand Prix – to see for himself just what Aston Martin could offer.

So is Aston Martin, which is enduring a pretty challenging season on track right now, in a position to be able to give Newey the environment he needs to thrive?

Adrian Newey, Chief Technology Officer, Red Bull Racing

Adrian Newey, Chief Technology Officer, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Newey would not pretend for one second that he is a one-man band who can miraculously get parachuted into a team and, all by himself, design, create, manufacture and build a race-winning car.

His strength is in acting as the powerhouse for all the brains of a team – outlining a global vision for the car that has its elements then realised by those working around him.

It’s not for him to design every last nut and bolt of an F1 car, but he’s there to think bigger picture, challenge areas he thinks are not up to his standards, and stay one step ahead of the opposition.

As Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache said about Newey’s input there: “On a daily basis, he’s not part of our process. He’s more coming from the sideways and trying to help us or challenge us on different aspects of the team – it could be mechanical design, aero or vehicle dynamics.» 

For Newey to succeed in such a role, he needs a strong team around him who can manifest his vision – and be trusted to get on with what he wants.

He had that at Red Bull, and Aston Martin certainly seems to have put the right calibre of people in place to deliver it for him there too.

In technical director Dan Fallows, he has someone he worked well with previously at Red Bull, and with quality talent like engineering director Luca Furbatto, new signing Enrico Cardile, executive director Bob Bell – and incoming CEO Andy Cowell, there is a wealth of race-winning talent that can be well utilised.

Dan Fallows, Technical Director, Aston Martin F1 Team

Dan Fallows, Technical Director, Aston Martin F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Some have suggested it could be a struggle to fit Newey in to what appears to be quite a complicated structure, but Aston Martin sees things differently: the depth of talent is something that can help Newey get the best out of himself.

Team principal Mike Krack said: “I think Formula 1 these days is so broad. It is not like you have to make huge changes.

“I think there was a time when there was a team that had seven technical directors in the past, so I think we are very far from that. I think someone like that, you have to make any kind of effort to integrate and adjust your structure to get the best out of it.”

In terms of tools at his disposal, Newey’s likely start time of next spring fits perfectly as well.

Aston Martin is already well bedded in at its new state-of-the-art Silverstone factory. There is no doubt that there was a disruptive phase to the move from its old former Jordan factory to the new building, but that is now well in the past.

More crucially, by the time Newey joins, Aston Martin’s wind tunnel will be fully up and running.

Furbatto explained recently that the new tunnel is ready to go online, but will need some months of commissioning to make sure that it is fully accurate before proper work begins.

Adrian Newey, Chief Technology Officer, Red Bull Racing

Adrian Newey, Chief Technology Officer, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“There will be a time when you have to do what’s called commissioning, so to make sure that the flow that is hitting the model is what we want and so on,” he said.

“That will take maybe two or three months to get that sorted. And I think it will be ideally suited to start the development of the 2026 car, which is allowed from January 2025.”

That is a time frame that fits in ideally for Newey’s arrival, as both he and the team will be able to hit the ground running from day one.

There is also another good aspect to the timing of Newey’s arrival, and that is that he is joining a squad that still has scope to change and evolve around him – as nothing is set in stone.

There is no doubt that Aston Martin is a team that is growing and developing itself – so is in a different cycle to more established outfits like Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.

As Furbatto explained: “Well, I think you should not underestimate the fact that as a team, we are developing a car, but also developing facilities.

“Imagine you’ve got a budget cap and, let’s say, you can afford 1000 people. If you’re Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, or McLaren, for example, you’ve got established facilities. 

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images

«It’s a matter of effectively fitting the car in the tunnel or running on the rig and so on. But in our case, we are developing a facility at the same time, so a percentage of the engineers are working on making sure that we’ve got state of the art wind tunnel. We have to commission the tunnel. We’ve got to dial in facilities.

“So if you take the analogy of the 1000 people, maybe 800 are working on the car and 200 are working developing the facilities. I think that will get much better, because [factory] building two and three are finished, and now we’ve got the tools available. Hopefully we see positive results in 2025 but I think our biggest effect will be in 2026.”

All of these elements of staff and tools combine to suggest that, by next spring, Newey will find around him exactly what he needs to thrive. And these are the same things that have convinced Fernando Alonso that Aston Martin is the right place to be – even if he knows it will take time.

“I think there are some ideas and some evidence of things that we did right, things that maybe we didn’t understand at the first go,” explained the Spaniard recently.

“I’m confident we have the talent in the team, we have the motivation, we have now the new factory, and we have new people coming as well.

“It’s just, unfortunately, Formula 1, you cannot change things from night to day, but we will not stop working until we get in a competitive position.”



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Newey’s move to Aston Martin set to be made official

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Adrian Newey’s move to the Aston Martin Formula 1 team looks set to be announced in the build-up to next week’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Following months of speculation about the future of the legendary F1 designer, who announced earlier this year that he would be leaving Red Bull, final confirmation of his plans is likely to come before the next race.

While Newey was initially linked most strongly with the Ferrari team in the wake of his Red Bull exit, it quickly became clear that Aston Martin had overtaken it as a leading bidder to secure his services.

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As well as team owner Lawrence Stroll doing some personal bidding to convince Newey to come onboard, a secret visit to Aston Martin’s Silverstone factory in June is understood to have played a major part in his decision to believe that the squad can give him what he needs.

Stroll has invested hugely in creating a state-of-the-art facility for the squad, and critically a new wind tunnel is due to be up and running soon, which will help in the team’s long-term ambitions.

While Aston Martin has not commented on the situation, an announcement about Newey’s future had long been anticipated for this month – because of a clause in his Red Bull exit terms regarding when his future could be revealed.

Watch: Why Monza was Ferrari’s Win, Not McLaren’s Loss — F1 Italian GP Analysis

As previously reported by Autosport, sources indicated that a September date had been agreed for when he would be allowed to go public with what he was doing – which then would leave a six-month window before he could officially start work.

The likely imminent confirmation of Newey’s arrival comes amid a major recruitment drive by Aston Martin to secure the top engineering talent the squad thinks is needed to take on the best in F1.

Before the summer break, the outfit announced that former Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell would be joining it as Group CEO in October, replacing Martin Whitmarsh.

Furthermore, Aston has signed former Ferrari chassis technical director Enrico Cardile to help boost its design strengths.

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With the team already having a technical director in place in Dan Fallows, who used to work with Newey at Red Bull, there have been questions asked about how easy it would be to create a coherent structure that involved all its star talent.

But speaking at the recent Dutch Grand Prix, Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack said it would not be a big issue to resolve.

“I think Formula 1 these days is so broad,” he said. “It is not like you have to make huge changes.

“I think there was a time when there was a team that had seven technical directors in the past, so I think we are very far from that. I think someone like that, you have to make any kind of effort to integrate and adjust your structure to get the best out of it.”

While Newey’s likely arrival at Aston Martin will be a huge boost to the team’s long-term ambitions, with the Briton having won titles at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, current driver Fernando Alonso thinks it will take time for his impact to be felt.

Asked at the Italian Grand Prix about the looming confirmation, Alonso said: “Well, still only rumours and I think it’s not only [a] one-man job to fix the things.

“So it’s more what we have now and what we are producing; understand what is going in the right direction, what is going on the wrong direction and try to prepare 2025 in a better way.”



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Pressure increasing on Aston Martin but team claims owner Stroll is patient

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack says there is “huge pressure” inside the squad to revive its Formula 1 results but claims owner Lawrence Stroll understands this will take time.

This year, the team could not repeat its 2022-2023 off-season gains, where it rose from finishing seventh in the 2022 constructors’ championship to scoring six podiums in the first eight races, along with a missed win at Monaco.

Fernando Alonso was then regularly bothering Red Bull at the head of F1’s pecking order.

Although Aston’s year-on-year gains were impressive last season, rivals Ferrari and Mercedes initially persevering with flawed car concepts before joining the outwash sidepods aerodynamic path Red Bull had proven was so successful, along with McLaren leaping in front of all three squads to trail Red Bull, meant the green team’s glittering results dried up.

This term, its major front wing, floor and rear aero parts Imola upgrade package backfired and while Aston has since made alterations to try and recover its lost ground, it currently sits fifth in this year’s constructors’ standings with a best result of fifth.

In an exclusive interview with Autosport at the recent British Grand Prix, Krack discussed how “where others were underperforming and we were overperforming in the competitive order” meant early 2023 was “flattering and probably not a true reflection of where we really were as a team”.

When asked how Stroll viewed Aston’s situation in 2024 – with the outside perception that the team has gone backwards as others have gained more significantly around it – Krack replied: “Well, I think there are two aspects.

Mike Krack, Team Principal, Aston Martin F1 Team

Mike Krack, Team Principal, Aston Martin F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“One is: what progress do you make compared to the competition over the years? Where you have ambitious targets and you try to manage them.

«That is something that I think you have a discussion [about] and you have a plan in place and you know that you cannot go from seventh to first. It’s not possible.

“You need, ‘this and this and this’. You have seen some of what we need in the future. That is one point and I think there is a certain amount of reality or realism and also patience.

“But then when you go and you zoom in and you bring upgrades and they are not delivering the performance that they should, then the pressure is increasing and rightly so.

“I think the perception from outside is not wrong or erroneous. The perception inside is huge pressure because [the Imola upgrade] doesn’t deliver what you were expected to deliver and trying to solve this as quick as possible [is now the aim] and in that point, I understand also that there is less patience.

“Now, Lawrence has been in this business for long. He is very knowledgeable of how Formula 1 works, he knows also that if you have something that didn’t work until you have something better, it takes time – to make new parts, to make this to make that. So, I think it’s a mix between the two. It is a situation that we would not like to be in.

“We started the season in fifth, wanted to get closer, had a plan to get closer to the top cars, and have not delivered that.”

In addition to trying to recover its 2024 car development ground, Aston has also recently made a change at the top of its management structure, with ex-Mercedes engine chief Andy Cowell set to replace former McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh as group CEO in October.



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Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar set for «full-blown test programme»

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


The maiden runs for the Aston Martin Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar have been billed as a “great foundation” for the test programme leading into its competition debut next season.

Adam Carter, Aston’s head of endurance motorsport, made the claim after the Valkyrie AMR-LMH undertook its first two days of circuit testing at Silverstone and then Donington Park last week, as the British manufacturer builds up to its entry into the respective Hypercar and GTP classes of the World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship.

“We set an ambitious but achievable target and we completed our aims,” he told Motorsport.com.

“It has been a long journey with a lot of commitment from a lot of parties to get to this milestone, but it just marks the beginning of the next stage of the journey. It was a great foundation to take the car forward into a full-blown test programme.”

That will begin imminently, Carter explained. “Between now and going into competition next year we have a very sizeable test programme planned and we will be active every few weeks,” he said.

“We have a very solid target and our first running in the shakedown has given some cautious optimism of being able to achieve that.”

Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH

Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR-LMH

Photo by: Aston Martin

The car was run over the course of the two days by a mixture of personnel from the US-headquartered Heart of Racing team, which will field the Valkyrie in both WEC and IMSA, and the Aston Martin Performance Technologies group leading the programme.

It completed more than 300 miles over last week’s test outings at Silverstone on Tuesday and Donington on Thursday.

The test at Silverstone was undertaken by Harry Tincknell, who is contracted to Multimatic Motorsport, a key partner in both the development and running of the Valkyrie. Longtime Aston driver Darren Turner and HoR regular Mario Farnbacher then took over driving duties at Donington.

Carter wouldn’t be drawn on whether Aston and HoR would give the AMR-LMH its race debut at next January’s Daytona 24 Hours, the opening IMSA round of the season.

That was put into doubt by Aston’s press statement on the release of photographs of the Valkyrie running at Donington in camouflage livery. It talked of a “competitive debut early in 2025” without mentioning Daytona, which suggests its first race could be delayed until the 10-hour WEC season-opener in Qatar at the end of February.

“The first milestone was to get the car running, the next one for me is the homologation date,” Carter told Motorsport.com. “There is a lot to be learned between now and the homologation — that is my key focus. Let’s get to the homologation point and see where we are.”

HoR will field a single Valkyrie in IMSA, while it will make a pair of entries in WEC in line with the new rule mandating that manufacturer teams in Hypercar run two cars.



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Why Alonso felt instant red flag for Tsunoda crash was a «gross error»

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Fernando Alonso felt that the FIA made a «gross error» in the way it swiftly brought out the red flag for Yuki Tsunoda’s qualifying crash at Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

Tsunoda crashed at the exit of Turn 5 during the closing stages of Q3, with just two minutes and 23 seconds remaining in the session.

With Tsunoda’s medical light having been triggered automatically by the impact, which necessitates the instant dispatch of the medical car, plus there being debris left on the track, race control acted swiftly to bring out the red flag. It took just a little more than 10 seconds for Q3 to be stopped.

That call meant that no driver could finish their laps, even if they were past the incident.

This annoyed Alonso because he was on a quicker lap at the time the red flag was called, which could have potentially lifted him further up the grid.

The situation was especially hard for Alonso to accept because of what he claims is a verbal agreement among teams and the FIA that if cars run off track early in a lap, then double yellows will be waved rather than a red flag.

This means any cars that have not come across the incident will have to abort their laps, but it does not penalise drivers who are long past the incident.

Speaking to Spanish TV station DAZN, Alonso said: ‘In Q3… The FIA sometimes gets it right and sometimes makes gross errors.

«Today they made one, because they red-flagged when I was in the last corner, which is surprising. When there is an accident at Turn 8 [he meant Turn 5] they normally wait for the cars to complete their laps, or that’s the spoken rule.»

But Motorsport.com understands that, while the double yellow stance is the preference in terms of dealing with cars off track, the requirement of the medical car and the scale of the incident meant that it was felt a red flag was more appropriate.

Parc ferme issue

Alonso’s irritation at how the session ended also further grew when, after aborting his lap and returning to the pits, he was waved into parc ferme by officials.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

He and team-mate Lance Stroll, who was running on the track behind him, both stopped their cars in the area at the start of the pitlane where a car from the new Apple F1 film was positioned.

Alonso managed to remove his steering wheel and undid his belts before officials told him that he needed to get moving again.

He added: «Going into the pitlane, Lance and I were put into parc ferme, they closed the pitlane and put us into parc ferme.

«We got out of the car, then they told us that Q3 was going to restart. We got back in the car, they buckled us in, and because I had no more tyres, I didn’t go out again.»

It is understood that the decision by officials to wave Alonso and Stroll into parc ferme was because the early communication was that the session would not be able to restart after Tsunoda’s red flag — and the Aston Martins were there so soon after the red flag was called.

However, with race control quickly realising that the stricken RB could be retrieved and there was enough time for cars to complete another flying lap, it was communicated that cars could return to their garages so the two ARM24s were told to move.

Alonso suggested that the double whammy of incidents ultimately made no difference to his grid position, but was still something he struggled to understand.

«I had been improving by a tenth and a half until that last corner when the red flag came out and it probably doesn’t change anything,» he said.

«But this going into the parc ferme, then opening it again and that doesn’t normally happen.»

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How Aston Martin has applied some corrective surgery to its 2024 F1 car

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Aston Martin arrived at Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix with a substantial update that it hopes will cure some handling quirks that have hurt its form recently.

A previous upgrade that was debuted at Imola delivered more downforce, but also made the car nervous on the edge, which was not ideal for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

The revisions that appeared at the Hungaroring are, according to its technical director Dan Fallows, aimed at delivering «a better balance, a more consistent car».

PLUS: Can Aston Martin vanquish its current form to fight at the front?

Watch: McLaren Beat the Heat — F1 News — Hungarian Grand Prix Friday

That is probably why there are no big surprises nor new innovations to be found on the AMR24, with the team taking more of a corrective surgery approach this time around and trying to find more balance from the solutions it already had.

It’s also a front-to-back package, with each of the components being altered as a means to complement the other.

This starts with the front wing, which the team changed more extensively last time out at Silverstone and features a more loaded upper element for the challenges posed by the Hungaroring.

Most of the work that has been undertaken by the team centres around changes to the floor and its ancillary components, with the floor fences, edge wing and diffuser all subject to subtle adjustments.

Aston Martin AMR24 floor and fence comparison

Aston Martin AMR24 floor and fence comparison

Photo by: Uncredited

The camber and shape of the outer floor fence have been modified, along with the smaller double transition steps being swapped for a larger single step down (white dotted lines).

Meanwhile, a notch has been taken out of the lower front corner of the innermost fence, likely to help flow characteristics at varying ride heights.

This is a route that we’ve seen several other teams already take to help improve flow stability. It usually comes in tandem with changes to the forward floor section’s ceiling, which also appears to have been adjusted, given there are obvious signs of such around the lower SIS portion of the floor’s roof, with a double kickline now present in the surface (red dotted lines).

The forward portion of the edge wing has also been fettled similarly to the way its rivals have done so recently too, with more camber added and the strakes adjusted in their length and exposed metal fillets added to increase rigidity.

Aston Martin AMR24 technical detail

Aston Martin AMR24 technical detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

At the rear of the car, the team has made adjustments to the shape of the diffuser, which it describes as ‘a slightly modified shape with boat surface’. It is clearly looking to maximise performance from the central section of the car and take advantage of the renewed flow structures being generated upstream.

Meanwhile, changes to the outboard portion of the beam wing elements will help to produce more load directly, while also helping activate the aerodynamic connection with the diffuser and rear wing.

Aston Martin AMR24 technical detail

Aston Martin AMR24 technical detail

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

New to Aston Martin, but similar to solutions we have seen elsewhere, such as on the Ferrari SF-24, is a new horseshoe-style outcropping vane on the side of the AMR24’s halo, which is being used to help redirect some of the errant airflow in that region.

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Aston Martin Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar completes shakedown test

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The Aston Martin Valkyrie Le Mans Hypercar that will compete for outright honours in the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship next year has undertaken its first test.

A shakedown by the Valkyrie AMR-LMH was undertaken earlier this month without bodywork ahead of the start of proper testing in the next few weeks in its definitive form.

The run was described as a “systems check” by Ian James, team principal of the Heart of Racing squad that will field the Valkyrie AMR-LMH in both the Hypercar class in WEC and GTP in IMSA from 2025.

He confirmed that the V12-powered Aston ran as “a spine without bodywork”.

“It was just a short test to check that the drivetrain, the braking system and everything is working properly before we start testing with the completed car,” James told Motorsport.com.

“That should be in the next couple of weeks if everything goes to plan.”

The location of the test has not been divulged, though James confirmed that it was not on a proper race circuit and that the running was only in a straightline.

He did reveal, however, that driving duties were handed to former Aston Martin factory racer Stefan Mucke.

The German was brought in a result of a lack of availability of a suitable driver from Aston’s factory roster, James explained.

Mucke has close links with the Multimatic organisation, which is a key partner in development and the running of the AMR-LMH, from his stint as part of its GTE Pro WEC squad with the Ford GT run under the Ganassi banner in 2016-19.

A shakedown this month for Aston’s first contender for overall honours at the Le Mans 24 Hours since 2011 means the Valkyrie programme remains on schedule ahead of its projected race debut at next January’s Daytona 24 Hours IMSA season-opener.

Aston earmarked a start to its test programme early in quarter three of this year on the launch of the car last October.

Watch: Aston Martin’s Hypercar: Back in Top Class Endurance Racing

Initial running will be centred on one AMR-LMH in Europe before a second chassis is brought on stream for testing in the USA at IMSA circuits late in the year.

“We will be focusing on one test car to start with in Europe, and once we get over a certain threshold in mileage we will put one test car in the US and one in Europe,” said Aston head of endurance motorsport Adam Carter in May.

Aston undertook two tests early in the year with the Valkyrie AMR Pro track day car from which the LMH has been developed.

The runs at Silverstone and Portimao were focused on data acquisition and software testing.

Aston and Heart of Racing confirmed last month that it has expanded its initial WEC programme from one to two cars in line with the new rule mandating two entries from factory teams in Hypercar.

A single car is planned in IMSA.

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Why F1 upgrade stumbles have become twice as costly

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If there is one element that characterises Formula 1’s current era, it may well be the unpredictable form curves that fluctuate more than they did before 2022.

We have seen teams make giant performances leaps over the past few winters and throughout seasons, including McLaren, RB and Aston Martin.

But on the flipside, some teams have also been knocked back by upgrades that didn’t deliver or induced secondary issues on the car.

Two of the aforementioned teams, Aston Martin and RB, are among the squads that have seen their progress stunted by recent development setbacks.

Ferrari, which also made impressive race pace gains compared to 2023, has had to take its most recent batch of upgrades off its SF-24 because it induced bouncing in high-speed corners and has reverted to a specification from two months ago.

«We have basically the same car as in Imola and since Imola everyone has upgraded, probably added two tenths to the car and we have had to revert,» said Carlos Sainz. «We have lost two or three months of performance gain in the wind tunnel or performance we could have added in these three months, so clearly we haven’t taken the right calls recently.»

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Erik Junius

RB similarly had to take most of its Barcelona upgrades off, including the floor, and took a hit in the form table as a result.

Meanwhile, Aston Martin’s relative lack of progress has in recent weeks has also seen it slip down the order, leading to a frustrated Fernando Alonso.

Why are teams struggling with upgrades?

It is no news that these ground-effect dominant cars have been hard beasts to tame. Just ask Mercedes, which has been in the doldrums for two years before finally finding the right answers to make its cars regular challengers rather than «divas» that were unpredictable to drive.

With these cars, increasing performance is not as easy as just whacking aerodynamic load on and pray for the best, hoping downforce will solve most of the handling issues of the car.

More than ever, developing a current car is a game of compromises, with cars that perform well in high-speed corners often paying the price in low-speed corners and vice versa.

Developing a car that is well balanced across various corner types and speed is considered the holy grail, and while a lot of attention has gone to the floor area, the front wing and suspension set-up all play a part in having a car that has a wider operating window.

The low and stiff rides of these cars have also made bumps and kerbs a bigger factor. The simulation tools teams use are extremely advanced, but even those can’t simulate every variable a real-world environment throws at a car.

Alpine simulator

Alpine simulator

Photo by: Alpine

We have seen designers being taken for a spin by 2022’s crippling porpoising issues and some teams, like Ferrari, have seen bouncing return as an unwanted side-effect of a new floor design. Even Red Bull, which dominated the past two championships, still has a car that struggles for performance over the bumps, and that issue has bitten it hard on circuits like Singapore and Monaco.

«The correlation on the downforce is okay, but it is still a question mark for everybody,» said Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur. «It is quite difficult to have correlation because you don’t have bouncing in the wind tunnel. You can have more bouncing with this part than another one but to know if it will have a negative impact on performance is another story.»

An additional factor is the ever narrower scope of upgrades teams are now chasing midway through the third year of stable regulations. The time of finding tenths of a second with each upgrade is over. As performance converges and the development curves have flattened out, we are talking about parts that produce half a tenth here and there. The smaller the gains, the harder it is to validate them and filter through the noise.

Why are upgrade misses more costly now?

The complexity of these cars is such that when an update doesn’t deliver or leads a team up the wrong path, it takes time to analyse as you can’t solve a problem you don’t understand. Not only does it rob a team of expected performance gains its rivals do manage to make, but it also delays the next upgrades as teams might have to re-think months of work and explore different direction.

«It’s a double negative effect,» RB team principal Laurent Mekies told Autosport. «Not only did you not pocket the advantage you wanted, but you also have to delay the next one until you actually understand what’s going on.»

Another reason why the plight of Ferrari, Aston and RB has been so pronounced is also a factor of how much the grid has closed up. At the Austrian Grand Prix a mere 0.798s covered the entire 20-car grid in Q1, and in Canada 0.021s was the difference between pole and the second row.

Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C44, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, Zhou Guanyu, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C44, Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24, Logan Sargeant, Williams FW46, Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C44, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, Zhou Guanyu, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C44, Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24, Logan Sargeant, Williams FW46, Daniel Ricciardo, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Against these tiny margins, it doesn’t take much for a less than optimal upgrade to set a team back many positions. RB’s drop was quite dramatic as its car was actually slower with its Barcelona upgrades than it was without it. But even with less extreme examples, Alonso just missed the Q3 cut-off in Barcelona by a whisker, with RB’s Daniel Ricciardo befalling the same fate in Austria.

It’s therefore also important not to overreact to these fluctuations, as two or three tenths can be the difference between looking like a genius or a village idiot, neither of which is fair.

But when teams do get it right, fast-tracking an update one or two races earlier can be a huge boost even if the performance gain is relatively small.

«It’s a time to market business,» said Mekies. «Last minute, not taking the time to compare because you just want to move on and go fast.

«Sometimes you fall and that’s exactly what happened in Barcelona. We put the upgrade on both cars and it was very difficult to understand how to react, and then we took the time to pause in Austria to make the right comparisons, even though it was a sprint weekend.

«Of course, you will say: ‘Why don’t you do [the back-to-back test] all the time? Why you don’t take all the time you need?’ Because it’s a time to market business and if you are faster than the other guys with the same update, you will actually get more out of them.

«But it’s good for the team to have that high-risk mindset. It’s a highly competitive business and that’s what we want the company to do.»

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal, RB F1 Team, Jonathan Eddolls, Head of Trackside Engineering RB F1 Team

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal, RB F1 Team, Jonathan Eddolls, Head of Trackside Engineering RB F1 Team

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Is short-term pain the way out?

In Ferrari’s case, it conducted those back-to-back experiments in British Grand Prix free practice. While there was some short-term pain as it compromised the weekend of Sainz and Charles Leclerc, Vasseur hoped there would be a long-term gain as the Scuderia now understands what it needs to do.

«It is very difficult as a team to compromise or sacrifice Friday sessions, because it means you put yourself in a tough situation, but it was the right call to do it,» said Vasseur.

«It is difficult to say after the [poor] result but we did a step forward. We have a better understanding of the situation on Sunday evening than on Friday morning. This is encouraging for the rest of the season.»

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Aston Martin battling distorted expectations after 2023 charge

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack says overdelivering in the 2023 Formula 1 season means it is now battling inflated expectations.

Aston Martin is currently lagging behind 2024’s four top teams and has slipped back to battle the improving RB outfit in recent races, with the team’s standout driver Yuki Tsunoda frequently finishing ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Aston has come under fire for its 2024 performances off the back of a much stronger 2023 season, in which Alonso took six podiums over the first eight races, before Aston was overtaken by the surging McLaren team.

Team principal Krack pointed out the team is still in a build-up phase at its new Silverstone headquarters, and exceeding expectations last year has led to excess pressure on what it can achieve in the short term, especially now McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari have all gotten their act together.

When asked by Autosport why there is a disconnect between the progress Krack claims the team is making and its lack of on-track results, he replied: «These processes take time and there are not many businesses where you have less time than Formula 1.

«So that is the constant juggling between expectation management and the expectations you generate also with what we had last year.

«Last year, we exceeded [expectations] massively, and we are measured on this today. And that is why we have to put this year a bit more in perspective.»

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team, 2nd position, with his trophy

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team, 2nd position, with his trophy

Photo by: Patrick Vinet / Motorsport Images

Aston is partly judged on ambitious team owner Lawrence Stroll’s aim to fight for wins and world championships within four to five years, a statement which was made in July 2021.

Generously, that would give it until the regulations reset in 2026, when Aston Martin switches to works Honda power units, to realise those ambitions.

But Krack, who wasn’t at the team yet at that time, warned that the squad’s long-term focus means its progress won’t necessarily be linear.

«Last year, at this time, you said: ‘You are much ahead of the plan’. Now, we are much behind the plan. And that’s fine, we have to face also these questions if we put these statements out.

«Last year, we were obviously better than we were thinking. That trajectory will go up, it will go down, depending on what your competitors are doing. It is like the stock exchange.

«But you have to keep the target in sight. We have a plan in place how we develop the team from an infrastructure point of view, from the way we are developing. We have great partners coming with Honda, we have a great partner with Aramco — so I think there’s no reason to be negative.

«All in all, I’m happy with the way the team develops and you have to go through more difficult periods as well.»



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