How do you assess a season like Aston Martin’s?At first glance, moving from P7 to P5 is progress, but considering the context, 2023 is a year that promised much more.
Aston Martin’s rise from rare problems to podiums over the course of a winter has been nothing short of remarkable. In an era of budget constraints, such a leap forward is no small feat and is only surpassed through a similar reversal of luck from McLaren.
It seemed that something had happened within the Silverstone-based team. With Fernando Alonso, they had an elite driving force that was hungry for success. Mike Krack led an experienced team that sneakpily caught some of his rival’s most productive workers and perhaps for the first time since the days of Racing Point’s ‘pink Mercedes’, they had a fast car.
Red Bull’s dominance began in the first race, but in Bahrain there was only one team capable of challenging them: Aston Martin. Alonso would finish on the podium in the first race of the season, as he did in the first three races.
Aston Martin’s moment in qualifying, a notable leap from last year, but it was the Spanish Grand Prix that for the first time hinted at disarray within the team. Alonso qualified eighth, his lowest level of the season so far, and gained just one position in the standings. Grand Prix.
At the same time, Aston Martin’s rivals for second place were starting to gain ground. Mercedes’ upgrade package, first unveiled in Monaco but maximised in Barcelona, has allowed them to shake off their poor form since the start of the season. McLaren Two is a long way from presenting its own update.
But while Aston’s rivals improved, the Silverstone team fell back. When a new factory opened shortly before the British Grand Prix, Aston found that what they were putting into the car made it slower and harder to understand.
Krack, speaking ahead of the race at Spa, admitted that the team had had poor progression options and were now paying the price.
“It’s very complex,” he explained. You replace one thing, you never replace one thing, and everything else is fine.
“You have appearance effects when you make adjustments and you have to weigh what you use.
“For example, a piece has more but has another character or vice versa and we think that in one or two conditions we don’t make the right decision. “
Three months later, the atmosphere at the Aston pitch couldn’t be more different from the heady days of the start of the year. An unfounded rumour that Alonso was contemplating retirement did not contain a shred of truth, but even the life of such speculation is an indicator. of the extent of his fall.
Which brings us back to the question: how do you assess Aston’s season?The answer to this question is complicated because, although they have taken a step forward since 2022, scoring more podiums this year than all other seasons under Lawrence Stroll’s ownership combined, 2023 has featured so much more.
Its fall in order seemed inevitable. Mercedes was the first to go, Ferrari soon after, and McLaren’s decision was the final nail in the coffin of their season. With a 135-point gap to Alpine, Aston will retain fifth place, but if their year can be considered a good fortune will be decided through what they learn between now and the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi.
It’s no secret that after the summer break, groups vying for name tend to start hunting for the future. Red Bull’s dominance in 2023 has made this selection less difficult than in previous years and while the positions and the important prizes that come with them are still up for grabs, the final races of the year can be considered more objective. Missions.
For Aston, the mystery they will have to solve is clear: where did we go and how to avoid repeating the same mistake?
Analysis of their progression challenges shows a simulation error in Aston’s set-up that prevented their on-track effects from matching what they saw. This is a common challenge for F1 groups and one that Mercedes has also suffered.
But it was the team’s willingness to grow that caused those problems. A front wing installed in Barcelona, as well as modifications to the terrain in Canada, did indeed produce this effect, but at the same time disturbed the balance of the car.
This had the inconclusive result of making it more difficult for Aston Martin’s mechanics and engineers to find the right set-up for the car. While at the beginning of the season it could have been competitive from the start, it now takes longer to locate it. The sweet spot. Coupled with the build-up of sprint races towards the end of the season and limited practice sessions, Aston is now well ahead of the clock at the end of the race week.
“We can see where we’re going in terms of the imbalance of the car,” technical director Dan Fallows said ahead of the race in Austin.
“We understood why this hurt our overall performance. Now it’s a matter of making sure we don’t make the same mistakes again: in fact, it’s been a year of learning.
F1 Driver of the Day: Who will be the prize in F1 2023?
F1 2023: Qualifying stats and head-to-head races between teammates
“We were guided in a safe direction through our simulation equipment on the aerodynamic side, and we followed a path that just wasn’t the right one. I think now the factor is constant with the new package.
The discovery of this issue, while undoubtedly annoying, would also have been a relief for Aston’s technical team, as it gives them a better idea of why everything they put into the car made it slower and not faster.
Aston’s fall will also need to be noticed in the context of their opponent. While its headquarters can be traced back to the Jordan team of the 1990s, this existing iteration is a much more recent project.
By comparison, Ferrari and McLaren have decades of fun between them, Red Bull joined the grid in 2006 and Mercedes returned after a foray into the 1950s in the early 2010s. The new Aston Martin logo headquarters is an effort to get closer to the sport’s greats. groups, but it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight. The truth is that the four most sensible groups have been doing this for much longer and that’s why, unsurprisingly, their processes are much more agile and much more efficient.
Thus, Aston is found to be in a state of mutation.
If you had presented them with a fifth-place finish before the start of the season, they would have snatched your hand away, but reminiscent of what could have been, there is a negative feeling throughout the team.
But Aston’s true judgment for 2023 is not expected to come after the season or at the start of 2024. As long as they can get back to where they were, Aston Martin now has a roadmap of do’s and don’ts. one of the most productive in the sport.
Read next: Red Bull rumours denied that Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo are connected to Sergio Perez’s seat