Aston Martin introduces its first changes at Imola to turn around its season
Having struggled for several races, Aston Martin is introducing a major series of technical evolutions at Imola, including a new floorpan and redesigned bodywork. The team, which hasn't scored any points in the last four Grand Prix except for the sprint race in Miami, is hoping to regain its competitive edge.
Aston Martin presented its first set of significant evolutions for the 2025 season at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola this weekend. The Silverstone-based team, currently seventh in the constructors' championship, has not scored points in the last four Grand Prix and is desperately seeking to turn its situation around.
Substantial technical modifications
The package introduced by Aston Martin represents the most significant evolution among the teams present at Imola. These improvements mainly include a new floor and a redesigned upper bodywork. The team hopes to gain aerodynamic downforce and stability, allowing Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso to return to the points zone.
The changes primarily concern:
- The floor: The main body has been revised with modified barriers and a floor edge to improve airflow under the car and increase aerodynamic load on the lower surface.
- Floor barriers: Their curvature and local details have been revised.
- Floor edge: Small changes have been made to the floor edge fin details and the main floor.
- The diffuser: The diffuser shoulder has been updated.
- The engine cover: The curvature of the coke bottle shape (lateral narrowing) has been modified to work in harmony with the floor edge details.
- The halo: Details around the rear halo mounts have been revised with a reduced fin.
- Lower rear wing: The incidence of the sections has been reduced compared to the previous version to decrease drag and improve overall aerodynamic efficiency.
Although this set of developments was designed in the old wind tunnel, it benefited from improvements thanks to the team's new wind tunnel. If these modifications yield the expected gains, it would break a disappointing trend observed over the last 18 months, where updates did not deliver the anticipated results.
A benchmarking strategy
To evaluate the effectiveness of these new parts, the team adopted a comparative approach. During the two Friday practice sessions, Lance Stroll drove the car with the new specifications, while Fernando Alonso used the Miami setup.
« We will run one car with the new specifications and the other with existing specifications at the start of the event for a cross-evaluation. It is beneficial to run two cars with different specifications to obtain a direct comparison under identical track conditions », explained Andy Cowell, the team director, on this approach.
The decision on the configurations to use for the rest of the weekend was to be made after analyzing the data from Friday.
Pilots who remain on the reserve
After yesterday's practice sessions, the drivers were measured in their statements. When asked about his impressions regarding the improved car, Lance Stroll simply replied: "The same." Regarding the impact of the developments, he specified: "I don't think so. I mean, we weren't expecting them to be, so you know, small changes."
For Fernando Alonso, who drove with the old specification, it was primarily a day dedicated to data collection to help the team better understand the new package: « I tried to do 50% of the work on my side of the garage, to be consistent and give my feedback on the car, and Lance did his part as well », he stated on this point.
These improvements come shortly after Adrian Newey's arrival as a technical partner. Although Aston Martin indicated that Newey would focus on the 2026 car, the renowned engineer acknowledged having some involvement with the current single-seater: "Lawrence [Stroll] naturally wants us to do our best in 2025, so there is a small team still working on this year's car from an aerodynamic perspective. I've had a few lunchtime conversations with this small group, discussing the car and what we can do about it," he stated earlier this week.
If the developments prove effective, both in terms of performance gain and accuracy in the correlation between the wind tunnel and the track, it would indicate that Aston Martin has finally made progress in an area where the team has lagged for too long. For Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, these improvements represent a hope of finally getting back into the points and reviving a season that has been very disappointing so far.
