Aston Martin technical director Dan Fallows discusses the team’s relationship with Mercedes as well what the future may hold for the Silverstone based outfit as work progresses on their new factory
“I find absolutely no reason to wish we had anything else…”
Aston Martin’s relationship with Mercedes, which sees the team use various rear end components designed by the Mercedes team as well as Mercedes’ power units. With Aston Martin making impressive gains over their rivals this season, they seem to have benefited greatly from their technical partnership.
When quizzed on the agreement, Fallows says the team are happy with their current agreement and the team do not wish to get any further parts from Mercedes.
“No, we are very happy with what we get,” Fallows said. “We obviously have a gearbox and aspects of the rear suspension and obviously the power units as well. We have been very happy with that. We as engineers obviously work around the constraints that we have.
“But so far I find absolutely no reason to wish we had anything else apart from what we get from them.
“We are very happy with the relationship…”
With heavy investment into the team, and Aston Martin working towards development in their own wind tunnel which is currently under construction, Fallows was asked if the team plan to distance themselves from Mercedes in order to take advantage of the freedom of developing their car from the ground up.
Fallows denies that the components which Aston Martin gets from Mercedes have a real impact on the team’s development.
“I think that would be true if we had a real dependence on them in areas that would limit our performance,” he said. “Honestly I don’t think that anything we get from Mercedes is limiting our performance.
“Does any of that stop us achieving the goals we want to achieve? Absolutely not. I think we are very happy with the relationship we have with them.”
He went on to reiterate the team’s happiness with their partnership. He played down rumours that Aston Martin are in talks with Honda when asked if the opportunity to develop a works engine would lead the team to reevaluate their current situation, answering with a political level of evasiveness.
“I couldn’t really say to be honest,” he stated. “I think that is where we are. We have a power unit partner that we are very happy with at the moment. That is what we are working around and we are very happy with that relationship.”
