Aston Martin He is fifth in the constructors' championship. With three races remaining in the 2024 season, the team reiterates its position from 2023, but to limit itself to the simple examination of the ranking would be to delude oneself too much, because the reality is that the Silverstone-based team arrives at the end of the world championship with a disappointing pace.
Last year, at the same time, Aston Martin added 236 points, also thanks to the eight podiums (three second places and five third places, all of Fernando Alonso), while in 2024 they only added 86 units, i.e. 150 points less. In short, a disaster.
He It turned out to be the wrong car and, despite efforts to find a viable line of development moving forward, the expected results did not arrive. Fernando Alonso, who finished fourth among the 2023 drivers, is now ninth, with Lance's Walk thirteenth.
Dan Fallowstechnical director of the team, was removed from his position and transferred to the production department in Gaydon. The 51-year-old Briton has been accused of creating a car that does not respond to changes, as if Dan, after a big landing at Silverstone in 2022, had spent all his cartridges on last year's AMR23.
He He missed his great opportunity to win at Monaco 2023 with the Spaniard, since the car was designed to be more competitive on low-speed circuits and was very competitive on slow tracks like the one in the Principality. This car perfectly managed the behavior of the Pirelli tires, as it found a good operating window, which the great talent and notable experience of the Asturian was able to exploit.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24, crashes during qualifying for the Brazilian GP.
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images
Until the Canadian GP, the race in which the first update was introduced, it seemed that Aston Martin could enter the battle of the leading teams. From Montreal, this hope faded, because the car, weak in a straight line and with the DRS open, tried to limit its faults, which made it partially lose the ability to exploit its true potential to the maximum .
However, Dan Fallows and chief aerodynamicist Eric Blandinwith the AMR24 they created a car intended to be competitive on “high speed” circuitsi.e. in turns and fast sections, taking a path partially rejected by McLarenwith their current MCL36 considered the most regular car, while they rather followed the concepts of Red Bull.
The 2024 season, with the arrival of flexible front wings, has taken on the meaning of favoring the development of low-speed cars, since with the flaps The deformables manage to transfer this payload to the rear to find a good balance in fast turns.
At Aston Martin, on the other hand, they have not found this balance and they insisted on working downstairswith six or seven developments which occupied a large part of the technical staff's time without finding the satisfaction that the team would have expected.
On the contrary, by keeping the focus on the element that generates the most load, perhaps the Fallows staff did not pay enough attention to the evolution of the rear wing, which allowed for many teams to make a significant leap in performance. load without penalizing efficiency due to drag.
Adrian Newey and Lawrence Stroll in Aston Martin's big formalization starting next year.
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
It's fair to say that Aston Martin is in the midst of a revolution: what was previously a low-level team wants to transform into a top team from 2026. The expansion of the workforce requires an overhaul of work processes that are closely linked to state-of-the-art headquarters that offer extraordinary growth opportunities, such as the wind tunnel or the CFD system.
Not to mention the exclusive relationship with Honda for the supply of engines and with Aramco for the arrival of e-fuel. In this context, it must not be easy to carry out the development of a car, especially since its objective is to fight for the world championship.
The signature of the technical genius of F1, in addition to having convinced Enrico Cardile to stop being technical director of Ferrariwhere he grew up and grew up, are a tremendous impetus for the growth of Aston Martin: Lawrence Stroll has achieved two brilliant moves in the technical market which testify to the team's desire to move towards the top.
But between today's disappointment and a 2026 which looks promising, there will be a 2025 full of unknowns: Dan Fallows has been removed, but it will be Luca Furbatto's turn to take care of the mechanical part of the AMR25, while the aerodynamics remain in the hands of Blandin.
Objective? Take a step back: abandon the 2024 aero philosophy, returning to the concepts of a car which in its “low speed” version had aroused many hopes. And this could be the first reboot.
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