Aston Martin F1 Team have made significant strides forward since their entrance into the 2023 season, with Team Representative Dan Fallows confirming that the team has seen a competitive car and returned better than expected performances.
With upgrades broadening the operating window for their car and a move to a new factory at Silverstone, Aston Martin looks forward to be closing the gap on current leaders Red Bull while battling it out for P2 between Mercedes and Ferrari.
Photo credit: FIA
Ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix where Fernando Alonso would finish a very strong P2, Fallows reflected on the strengths and weaknesses of the A23.
“Well, I think the biggest strength is that we’re doing a lot better than we were expecting to,” he said while also highlighting their upper-hand when it comes to low-speed corners. “I think we’ve seen at tracks towards the beginning of the season that in low-speed corners, we’ve had an advantage.”
However, Fallows pointed out the fact that having better-performing car in certain corners means that you lack advantages in other areas.
“But the truth is, when you have a car that is perhaps good in one set of corners rather than another, it does mean that you end up having to make setup compromises for those particular circuits,” he explained. “So you find that circuits where you have one particular speed of corner or one particular corner type or fewer of the variety of corner types, you need to have a car which is rather… You can optimise those and if you then go to a circuit where there’s a lot more variety, you have to make those compromises. And that’s what we’ve found. That’s what we’ve really been working on,” the 49-year-old added.
Aston Martin is trying to close the gap between themselves and Red Bull, who comfortably lead the Constructors’ Championship so far. Based on the eight races that had been held in this season, Fallows thinks that even though there is a gap to Red Bull, the team’s focus is on broadening the car’s operating window and continuing to be in the “nip and tuck” battle with Mercedes and Ferrari for second place as they also attempt to catch his former team.
“I think what Pierre [Waché] alludes to about their [Red Bull’s] car having very high efficiency, we all see that, we all have the data as well. So clearly, that’s something we’re working on. But that in truth is not something that comes overnight. It’s baked into the concept of a car, but it’s obviously a big target for us to try to make sure the car is slippery as well as quick in the corners.”
