Aston Martin F1 reflects on 2023’s challenges, learning from failed evolutions to build a more competitive and dynamic future with their new car.
Failed evolutions, Aston Martin F1 has ‘learned lessons’ from 2023. Last year, Aston fell behind in the development race. 6 podiums in 8 races… Aston Martin F1 had started the previous season ideally. However, the green team then fell off pace in the development race, ending even 5th in the constructors’ standings, behind McLaren, which had experienced an opposite trajectory.
According to c the team’s technical director, the evolutions had “side effects” on the team’s development curve.
The goal of the new car, unveiled today, is thus to serve as a “stable development base” so that evolutions integrate more naturally.
“We are very satisfied with the progress we have made over the winter, we believe we have made a step forward compared to last year’s car, that’s what we wanted.”
“But in truth, it’s a short off-season, and we developed things that were relevant for this year, quite late last season. The main goal for us, therefore, is to ensure that this car is a good platform for bringing developments to the car, over the season.”
“We have seen, especially last season, but also the previous season, that in-season development is absolutely fierce. And we want to be as competitive as we were at the start of the new season.”
“That’s why we’ve really focused on establishing a solid and stable base – which allows us to develop the car, and gain performance with the evolutions.”
However, Fallows does not want to throw out last season with the bathwater… the mid-year, mired in failed development, should not overshadow the start and end of the season.
“Last season was a fantastic season for this team.”
“It’s the most successful season we’ve had, so it’s hard to draw negative conclusions from it.”
“But we are always looking to improve and learn, and when we look at the trajectory of last season, we gave ourselves some challenges and we managed to overcome them.”
“We came back at the end of the season, after solving some of the issues we had introduced into the car mid-season, and we finished with a podium in Brazil. So we’ve just shown that this team has tremendous determination and capability.”
“But it’s important for us to maintain good momentum, and we wanted to carry that momentum through the winter and with this car, which I’m sure we have done.”
“It’s no secret that we adopted a pragmatic approach at the end of last season, we wanted to ensure we were using all opportunities to really learn the lessons we needed to learn about the AMR23.”
“We indeed had some glorious testing sessions during Grand Prix weekends, almost in some races, but it was important for us to do so.”
“We achieved good performances towards the end of the season, highlighted by the podium in Brazil (from Alonso) and the fifth place (from Lance Stroll), which was an excellent result for us. Having that momentum for this year was really the key element for us.”
“Having followed this process and continuing this momentum into 2024 gives us a lot of confidence approaching the season.”
Aston Martin F1 has grown as a team
Beyond these technical learnings, Fallows also emphasizes that Aston Martin F1 has learned numerous lessons operationally, on strategy, pit stops, etc.
“We learn a lot about ourselves as a team. We learned a lot last year, including operationally, on how we approach different things, on how we approach developments on the car.”
“When you’re developing a car, there’s always a certain risk of having to make compromises, and these compromises may or may not be as good as you’d wish. In terms of engineering, it’s something you have to live with.”
“But we have learned a lot about these rules, and we have learned a lot about how these cars need to perform – to see how to get the most out of the car’s aerodynamics.”
“So, as I said, we’re confident that we’ve learned many lessons and that we can confidently bring evolutions to the car this year, which is exactly what we want to do.”
Aston Martin F1 2024. Aston Martin F1 2024
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