Aston Martin’s upgrades had a hard time catching on

The 2023 season for Aston Martin has been up and down. The British team finished the year with 280 points and a fifth-place in the constructors’ championship, an improvement compared to their 7th place in 2022 and their 55 points.

In the first eight races of the season, the greens, led by a peak-performing Fernando Alonso, are the second force on the grid behind the untouchable Red Bull team. The two-time world champion achieves six podium finishes in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Miami, Monaco, and Canada.

It is at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve that Aston Martin brings a first series of improvements to enable the team to continue competing at the front and hope to secure the team’s first victory in its history. But this package did not have the expected effect. In the next four races, the green cars do not step on the podium once and see Mercedes, Ferrari, and even McLaren return to form.

Alonso climbed back onto the podium at the Dutch Grand Prix by finishing second in the race. But from this race at Zandvoort until the Brazilian Grand Prix, a span of two months, the team once again failed to secure any podium finishes.

« We are familiar with all the components and have a good understanding of the various tracks » Tom McCullough

In view of the early season promises, Aston Martin has slightly disappointed. Tom McCullough, the team’s performance director, has reflected on the development of the AMR23 during the season.

« The real car lives in a very different world from the wind tunnel and CFD. We have taken developmental paths and we are still trying to make the car go faster, you always trade off advantages and disadvantages when you make improvements, knowing what we know », explains Tom McCullough.

« Some of the small decisions we made, we would probably make them differently today, but I also think that many things have evolved well. When we sit down and look at what actually happened, and we talk to the aerodynamicists, they are a bit surprised by the story, because I think it’s a much bigger story than reality », declares the British person.

« We now know all the components, and we have always had a good understanding of the different tracks and their requirements. We are in a good position: we can go to any circuit and know which parts to assemble to be the best on that track, ” says the director of performance at Aston Martin.

In the end, we want to build a car that allows you to not have to change its configuration to be strong. The knowledge we have gained from the tests we have conducted is the main driving force behind how we develop next year’s car, concluded Tom McCullough.