2023 Aston Martin | Aramco | Cognizant F1 Team

[NAPI10]

Any news/scoop on what are targeted upgrades for Budapest & SPA?

[selvam_e2002]

Its worrying the amount of talk coming out of AM is still about track suitability and pre season expectations. Yeah they made a huge leap from 7th to 2nd but they're already back down to 5th. The tyre deg advantage over Ferrari and Merc is seemingly gone. They're not good in quali. And their car suits much fewer tracks than the other teams. When Mclaren and Merc were down, they were very confident and clear about the direction in which they wanted to go. No one from AM has given any indication as to where they want to/should go.

They don’t communicate that much but Krack said that they will have three races with upgrades

But now as Mercedes and RBR they are focusing on 2024

By the way I’m not sure that this is the right thing to do, it seems with those new regs that in season dev is as important as during the winter

I’m wondering if planning évolution until almost the last race is a good thing, it might be. And continuing the year after on that basis

Well, I do not think it can or will be a good thing.
AM was very good at the beginning. Same as 2020 with the pink Mercedes. They basically sacrificed last year to have a good start into this year. So if they do not sacrifice the last part of this season as well it will be hard for them. They never had a goof in-season development, so relying on it will not end good in my point of view.
Furthermore the start of this season is certainly exaggerated by Merc and Ferrari having a very bad start. This is what I always said at the beginning until now: RedBull does not have a rocket ship, it is the competition that is missing.

Yes. I agree completely. all other team went backward but RB stayed where it was.

[KimiRai]

Any news/scoop on what are targeted upgrades for Budapest & SPA?

Nothing so far apart from what Krack has said.

[Farnborough]

Its worrying the amount of talk coming out of AM is still about track suitability and pre season expectations. Yeah they made a huge leap from 7th to 2nd but they're already back down to 5th. The tyre deg advantage over Ferrari and Merc is seemingly gone. They're not good in quali. And their car suits much fewer tracks than the other teams. When Mclaren and Merc were down, they were very confident and clear about the direction in which they wanted to go. No one from AM has given any indication as to where they want to/should go.

This really is the sort of thing that goes to lead the next year development.
With THIS car on this track, the shortcomings are x, y, z etc......if it can't be readily fixed with short term changes it's exactly the details needed to feed evolution. Understanding what to change is the clever bit. That's really happening now, whatever a team wants to say about it.

[peewon]

Its worrying the amount of talk coming out of AM is still about track suitability and pre season expectations. Yeah they made a huge leap from 7th to 2nd but they're already back down to 5th. The tyre deg advantage over Ferrari and Merc is seemingly gone. They're not good in quali. And their car suits much fewer tracks than the other teams. When Mclaren and Merc were down, they were very confident and clear about the direction in which they wanted to go. No one from AM has given any indication as to where they want to/should go.

They don’t communicate that much but Krack said that they will have three races with upgrades

But now as Mercedes and RBR they are focusing on 2024

By the way I’m not sure that this is the right thing to do, it seems with those new regs that in season dev is as important as during the winter

I’m wondering if planning évolution until almost the last race is a good thing, it might be. And continuing the year after on that basis

The 'bring some parts' thing sounds like minor tweaks made to sound optimistic. Reminds me of how Alan Permane keeps hyping up Alpine updates every pre season test and they go nowhere. If you go back and listen or read about the teams that have made a leap, you'll see its always more specific. They talk about areas of the car they got wrong or fundamental concepts that need revision. They are almost a full second off RB and about 5-7 tenths off the nest best. Not something that gets bridged by a few new parts.

[alonsofan]

Its worrying the amount of talk coming out of AM is still about track suitability and pre season expectations. Yeah they made a huge leap from 7th to 2nd but they're already back down to 5th. The tyre deg advantage over Ferrari and Merc is seemingly gone. They're not good in quali. And their car suits much fewer tracks than the other teams. When Mclaren and Merc were down, they were very confident and clear about the direction in which they wanted to go. No one from AM has given any indication as to where they want to/should go.

They don’t communicate that much but Krack said that they will have three races with upgrades

But now as Mercedes and RBR they are focusing on 2024

By the way I’m not sure that this is the right thing to do, it seems with those new regs that in season dev is as important as during the winter

I’m wondering if planning évolution until almost the last race is a good thing, it might be. And continuing the year after on that basis

The 'bring some parts' thing sounds like minor tweaks made to sound optimistic. Reminds me of how Alan Permane keeps hyping up Alpine updates every pre season test and they go nowhere. If you go back and listen or read about the teams that have made a leap, you'll see its always more specific. They talk about areas of the car they got wrong or fundamental concepts that need revision. They are almost a full second off RB and about 5-7 tenths off the nest best. Not something that gets bridged by a few new parts.

When have they given specific updates about developments? They are always silent on updates. Even Alonso not saying anything about it.

[alonsofan]

There has been some very big progress from McLaren which probably exacerbates or exaggerates the AM “dip”, but I think it’s reasonable to say they haven’t made a big step forward from what was an excellent starting point.

I do however think they will go very nicely in Budapest as that looks on paper a track to suit better.

I don't think the McLaren progress exacerbates anthing. The reference has always been Red Bull. The question is, if McLaren can do it, then why the others can't?

The expectation from Aston was that if they have such a strong base package at the start with the wind tunnel time advantage, they can certainly develop it well over the season. And that expectation has fallen on it's face.

Some peeps are saying we will do well at Budapest, some are saying we won't. Only time will tell.

[KimiRai]

When have they given specific updates about developments? They are always silent on updates. Even Alonso not saying anything about it.

Sometimes they've mentioned which developments would be more significant than others such as the Canada package for example. It was known beforehand that they would bring at least a new floor there.

Some peeps are saying we will do well at Budapest, some are saying we won't. Only time will tell.

Doing well as in not having such a bad pace like Silverstone, then most likely it will happen. Doing well as in getting a podium though, is a different thing.

[Redragon]

There has been some very big progress from McLaren which probably exacerbates or exaggerates the AM “dip”, but I think it’s reasonable to say they haven’t made a big step forward from what was an excellent starting point.

I do however think they will go very nicely in Budapest as that looks on paper a track to suit better.

I don't think the McLaren progress exacerbates anthing. The reference has always been Red Bull. The question is, if McLaren can do it, then why the others can't?

The expectation from Aston was that if they have such a strong base package at the start with the wind tunnel time advantage, they can certainly develop it well over the season. And that expectation has fallen on it's face.

Some peeps are saying we will do well at Budapest, some are saying we won't. Only time will tell.

The wind time tunnel will only be benefitial towards the end of the year, so far most of the teams are around same time. Only those allowed more time would be the ones whom benefit from half end of the year towards next year. Also Mclaren kind of follow Aston Martin phylosophy and now they are a bit ahead. So that means AM now is too bad? Friday in Sylverstone, both sessions where used to test as so far they haven't had the right conditions to test the upgrades. So I feel, and that's my opinion, that the tweaks to the last upgrade would be more effective.
Nobody was expecting AM to be so up at the beginning of the Year and now they are even higher they were last year still is a dissapointment. They don't need to finish second on the contractionship, would be detrimental with wind tunnel time for next year. On an era where the budget is equal for everyone. Time developing is much more important if you can still do profit with sponsors. Which haven't lacked this year so far. I would say have increased more interest on the team. Because of the great few races. I might be wrong but podiums are not over this year.

[KimiRai]

Guy Austin (Project Manager) says wind tunnel will be completed by September 2024. I think that's the first time they've given a specific month.

[peewon]

They don’t communicate that much but Krack said that they will have three races with upgrades

But now as Mercedes and RBR they are focusing on 2024

By the way I’m not sure that this is the right thing to do, it seems with those new regs that in season dev is as important as during the winter

I’m wondering if planning évolution until almost the last race is a good thing, it might be. And continuing the year after on that basis

The 'bring some parts' thing sounds like minor tweaks made to sound optimistic. Reminds me of how Alan Permane keeps hyping up Alpine updates every pre season test and they go nowhere. If you go back and listen or read about the teams that have made a leap, you'll see its always more specific. They talk about areas of the car they got wrong or fundamental concepts that need revision. They are almost a full second off RB and about 5-7 tenths off the nest best. Not something that gets bridged by a few new parts.

When have they given specific updates about developments? They are always silent on updates. Even Alonso not saying anything about it.

I was referencing the article which quoted Krack talking about bringing new parts to next three races. This is contrast to Mclaren, Merc and even Ferrari who always talked in terms of concepts and specific areas of improvement in terms of development of car.

[KimiRai]

Tom McCullough:

"Fernando showed up at the factory on Sunday night after the Austrian race."

"On Monday morning he was in the simulator and in the afternoon he wandered around the design offices of the new factory, which he hadn't had a chance to see since they were completed. And on Tuesday, he was back in the simulator again."

"Between Austria and Silverstone he's been here at the factory all the time, doing some marketing, but also working with the engineers."

"He's been talking to Dan Fallows and Eric Blandin about the development of the car, giving feedback.... He has a good presence in the factory and pushes us to improve."

Would love to hear those conversations between Dan, Eric and Fernando and get to know all the small details and intricacies of car development, sadly it isn't possible haha. Hopefully they know where the issues might be & where to go.

[diffuser]

Fact is nobody can match Newey in this era of aerodynamics. Peter Prod went to McLaren and they have not done anything great. I think it's going to be the same with Fallows.

this is ageing like Milk so far.

Well AMR also got Merc's #1 aerodynamacist for good measure. Also might be why Merc are struggling.

You know you just can't turn everything around overnight. It takes time. If you look at what happened when Newey joined RBR....it play very similar to what is happening at AMR. The first year, they all of sudden got competitive. Every year, after that, they got more competitive. It took another 2 years to start winning regularly.

This isn't the end...IT'S THE BEGINNING!!!

[diffuser]

Guy Austin (Project Manager) says wind tunnel will be completed by September 2024. I think that's the first time they've given a specific month.

Which then means 3 - 6 months to correlate it. So will be used for the 2026 car?

[diffuser]

Tom McCullough:

"Fernando showed up at the factory on Sunday night after the Austrian race."

"On Monday morning he was in the simulator and in the afternoon he wandered around the design offices of the new factory, which he hadn't had a chance to see since they were completed. And on Tuesday, he was back in the simulator again."

"Between Austria and Silverstone he's been here at the factory all the time, doing some marketing, but also working with the engineers."

"He's been talking to Dan Fallows and Eric Blandin about the development of the car, giving feedback.... He has a good presence in the factory and pushes us to improve."

Would love to hear those conversations between Dan, Eric and Fernando and get to know all the small details and intricacies of car development, sadly it isn't possible haha. Hopefully they know where the issues might be & where to go.

You not kidding, that would be to die for...