In the first two rounds, Aston Martin showed that it could impose itself as the second-largest force in the race, thanks to an excellent pace and excellent tire management. The AMR23 proved to be a car with good overall downforce, with clear strengths in braking, acceleration and cornering at low speed, both when traveling and under traction.
This was seen both in Bahrain and in Jeddah, particularly in the first sector, the one where the aerodynamic load expressed by the single-seater counts the most and in which the Aston Martin performed well, guaranteeing driver confidence.
However, the AMR23 also showed obvious weaknesses, starting with overall efficiency, with top speeds on the straights that were well below those of its main rivals.
During qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Alonso recorded a top speed about 6 km/h lower than that of Red Bull, while in Saudi Arabia, thanks to the different choices in terms of load on the wings, that gap is even increased: 10 km/h on the main straight, 13 on the opposite stretch, the one before the last corner which also puts the hybrid system to the test.
Clearly, such a large gap is also linked to the choices made in terms of rear wings: Red Bull opted for a rather aggressive configuration in Jeddah, more unloaded than that of other rivals, thus guaranteeing excellent top speeds but without sacrificing too much cornering performance.
On the other hand, Aston Martin has instead chosen to present itself with a more loaded wing, a decision taken also bearing in mind the budget cap: instead of redesigning the whole wing in such a delicate phase of the season, the Silverstone team he simply modified the DRS flap thus containing production costs.
That gap highlighted on the straights, however, didn’t only show up against Red Bull, but also, albeit to a lesser extent, against Ferrari and Mercedes, demonstrating an overall efficiency problem. To strengthen its position as second force, it will therefore be important to be able to take a step forward on this aspect as well.
In this regard, after having taken note of the characteristics of the car in the first two races, the managers of Aston Martin have declared that they will reassess their plans during the break following the Australian GP, studying the situation in depth to understand whether to change approach and review the upgrade plan.
Aston Martin’s director of performance, Tom McCullough, explained: “We said to ourselves: let’s see the first three races and then think about the future, to see if we need to change what is already in our plan at the moment.
“I can’t stress the budget cap issue enough. It’s very easy to sit down and say, ‘I’m going to do seven or eight different rear wings to be globally optimized for qualifying with DRS and for racing.’ But doing that is quite difficult when You’re in a cost-capped environment.”
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB19, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR23
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
McCullough explained that, while in Bahrain there were some set-up choices Aston Martin made to increase downforce and improve tire management, as did other teams, in Saudi Arabia, where tire care took a back seat slowly, the gap from the other teams on the straight was a cause for alarm.
“In qualifying, Red Bull is certainly very strong with the DRS. I think that in the race, from a cost containment point of view, you can’t have all the wings you want on every track.
“So we prioritized what we felt was the right thing to do. We knew (in Saudi Arabia) that the wing we designed and built was not going to be as fast in a straight line as we wanted.
“But we have to balance out the amount of wings we’re trying to get across 23 races.”
Aston Martin AMR23 rear wing
Photo by: George Piola
McCullough said that while Aston Martin were buoyed by their early season form, they were aiming to keep improving to get closer to Red Bull and, above all, fend off Ferrari and Mercedes.
“Our goal is to develop this car to the max and get as close as possible to them (Red Bull). But they won’t stand still. They have a good margin, especially over one lap, given the speed of their car.”
“With Ferrari and Mercedes, it will be very difficult to maintain the rate of development with these teams this year, let alone Red Bull. But we are sitting here, week after week, doing our best.”
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