2024 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[OnEcRiTiCaL]

While I had been a proponent of giving the team time and defending them, I think it has reached such a point that I would find it strange if there is no exit next year with the arrival of Newey and the others. Who knows, maybe they won't sack anyone (except Whitmarsh) and I'm wrong, I have no idea after all. But it would be difficult for me not to see it happening. And not really because of scapegoating or blame culture or politics but because it is simply determined to be the best for the team.

Egos are too big for some people in upper management to take a demotion that is more appropriate for their skillset. Firings are inevitable. I hate it too but two years of cluelessness (three most assuredly) is enough.

I wouldn't call it cluelessness,because they had a good car in 22. But came the FIA ,then came the new tyres, came few technical directives etcetera. You guys say 22 just was because stolen Redbull development. If is true or not ,they still got their own data from wind tunnel, simulations about the AMR23 so you don't start to make a slower car just for fun. I still believe, that either isn't something right with the Mercedes wind tunnel or Mercedes didn't tell something for Aston what was the problem with it. You can see they still doing backup test with both car is very unusual. Let's see how they doing next year with the new windtunnel and facilities.

[AR3-GP]

Best wishes to Fernando Alonso for his 400th GP!

Didn't age well

I don't even know what to say. They are leaving me speechless every weekend. This team needs to pull their socks up.

[diffuser]

Think Alonso could have finished in the points if he didn’t get plastic in his front brakes.

[collindsilva]

Can somebody please advise if the 60% scale model for the WT, is it used only during the introduction of the new car ie before starts or it can be used also during the in season.
Seems, their initial launch is fine, but the in-season development is ---.

[diffuser]

Can somebody please advise if the 60% scale model for the WT, is it used only during the introduction of the new car ie before starts or it can be used also during the in season.
Seems, their initial launch is fine, but the in-season development is ---.

They can use it to the extent of their WT allocation.

[diffuser]

While I had been a proponent of giving the team time and defending them, I think it has reached such a point that I would find it strange if there is no exit next year with the arrival of Newey and the others. Who knows, maybe they won't sack anyone (except Whitmarsh) and I'm wrong, I have no idea after all. But it would be difficult for me not to see it happening. And not really because of scapegoating or blame culture or politics but because it is simply determined to be the best for the team.

Egos are too big for some people in upper management to take a demotion that is more appropriate for their skillset. Firings are inevitable. I hate it too but two years of cluelessness (three most assuredly) is enough.

I wouldn't call it cluelessness,because they had a good car in 22. But came the FIA ,then came the new tyres, came few technical directives etcetera. You guys say 22 just was because stolen Redbull development. If is true or not ,they still got their own data from wind tunnel, simulations about the AMR23 so you don't start to make a slower car just for fun. I still believe, that either isn't something right with the Mercedes wind tunnel or Mercedes didn't tell something for Aston what was the problem with it. You can see they still doing backup test with both car is very unusual. Let's see how they doing next year with the new windtunnel and facilities.

From wiki the structure is as follows ...

Team principal(s)	
  Lawrence Stroll (Chairman)
  Adrian Newey    (Managing Technical Partner)[2][3]
  Mike Krack      (Team Principal)[4][5]
  Andy Cowell     (Group CEO)[6][7]
  Andrew Alessi   (Head of Technical Operations)[8][9]
  Bob Bell        (Technical Executive Director)[10][11]
  Luca Furbatto   (Engineering Director)[12][13]

Chief Technical Officer	Enrico Cardile[14][15]
Technical director	Dan Fallows[16][17]

Based on that, Krack answers to Newey then Lawrence but Newey doesn't start till March. You're not gonna fire Krack and hire a replacement without Newey. So you're likely gonna wait till Newey shows up and evaluates him. Remember Lawrence went out and got Fallows and Krack like he did Newey. Fallows will answer to Cardille. Again you're not gonna find a replacement before Cerdille shows up and evaluates him.


The other thing is that Krack might have already told Lawrence 1 or 2 years ago that they need to strengthen the team and that's why they went out and got Cardille and Newey. So this might be "expected" to a degree.

[AR3-GP]

Based on that, Krack answers to Newey then Lawrence but Newey doesn't start till March. You're not gonna fire Krack and hire a replacement without Newey. So you're likely gonna wait till Newey shows up and evaluates him. Remember Lawrence went out and got Fallows and Krack like he did Newey. Fallows will answer to Cardille. Again you're not gonna find a replacement before Cerdille shows up and evaluates him.

I think Newey would have already given input on the leadership structure as a condition of his signing, not an after the fact thing. Newey would have needed guarantees that he could have the people he wanted moving over from Red Bull and elsewhere. If people are coming or going, it probably has already been decided.

[Nikosar]

Egos are too big for some people in upper management to take a demotion that is more appropriate for their skillset. Firings are inevitable. I hate it too but two years of cluelessness (three most assuredly) is enough.

I wouldn't call it cluelessness,because they had a good car in 22. But came the FIA ,then came the new tyres, came few technical directives etcetera. You guys say 22 just was because stolen Redbull development. If is true or not ,they still got their own data from wind tunnel, simulations about the AMR23 so you don't start to make a slower car just for fun. I still believe, that either isn't something right with the Mercedes wind tunnel or Mercedes didn't tell something for Aston what was the problem with it. You can see they still doing backup test with both car is very unusual. Let's see how they doing next year with the new windtunnel and facilities.

From wiki the structure is as follows ...

Team principal(s)	
  Lawrence Stroll (Chairman)
  Adrian Newey    (Managing Technical Partner)[2][3]
  Mike Krack      (Team Principal)[4][5]
  Andy Cowell     (Group CEO)[6][7]
  Andrew Alessi   (Head of Technical Operations)[8][9]
  Bob Bell        (Technical Executive Director)[10][11]
  Luca Furbatto   (Engineering Director)[12][13]

Chief Technical Officer	Enrico Cardile[14][15]
Technical director	Dan Fallows[16][17]

Based on that, Krack answers to Newey then Lawrence but Newey doesn't start till March. You're not gonna fire Krack and hire a replacement without Newey. So you're likely gonna wait till Newey shows up and evaluates him. Remember Lawrence went out and got Fallows and Krack like he did Newey. Fallows will answer to Cardille. Again you're not gonna find a replacement before Cerdille shows up and evaluates him.


The other thing is that Krack might have already told Lawrence 1 or 2 years ago that they need to strengthen the team and that's why they went out and got Cardille and Newey. So this might be "expected" to a degree.

I believe that Krack report to Cowell, or at least this what Otmar said. And he has more power than the TP.

Andy Cowell is the real key to 2026. His work will influence the work of Fallows and Newey. Cowell and the engine department will be decisive, as the result of aerodynamic efficiency depends on engine power, heat dissipation and the absence of aerodynamic blockage.

Mercedes success was primally driven by the engine superiority despite Red Bull often having the best aerodynamics under Newey's guidance.

[krich]

I have 0 doubts about Cowell and Newey

But i have a lot about krack and fallows

[diffuser]

I wouldn't call it cluelessness,because they had a good car in 22. But came the FIA ,then came the new tyres, came few technical directives etcetera. You guys say 22 just was because stolen Redbull development. If is true or not ,they still got their own data from wind tunnel, simulations about the AMR23 so you don't start to make a slower car just for fun. I still believe, that either isn't something right with the Mercedes wind tunnel or Mercedes didn't tell something for Aston what was the problem with it. You can see they still doing backup test with both car is very unusual. Let's see how they doing next year with the new windtunnel and facilities.

From wiki the structure is as follows ...

Team principal(s)	
  Lawrence Stroll (Chairman)
  Adrian Newey    (Managing Technical Partner)[2][3]
  Mike Krack      (Team Principal)[4][5]
  Andy Cowell     (Group CEO)[6][7]
  Andrew Alessi   (Head of Technical Operations)[8][9]
  Bob Bell        (Technical Executive Director)[10][11]
  Luca Furbatto   (Engineering Director)[12][13]

Chief Technical Officer	Enrico Cardile[14][15]
Technical director	Dan Fallows[16][17]

Based on that, Krack answers to Newey then Lawrence but Newey doesn't start till March. You're not gonna fire Krack and hire a replacement without Newey. So you're likely gonna wait till Newey shows up and evaluates him. Remember Lawrence went out and got Fallows and Krack like he did Newey. Fallows will answer to Cardille. Again you're not gonna find a replacement before Cerdille shows up and evaluates him.


The other thing is that Krack might have already told Lawrence 1 or 2 years ago that they need to strengthen the team and that's why they went out and got Cardille and Newey. So this might be "expected" to a degree.

I believe that Krack report to Cowell, or at least this what Otmar said. And he has more power than the TP.

Andy Cowell is the real key to 2026. His work will influence the work of Fallows and Newey. Cowell and the engine department will be decisive, as the result of aerodynamic efficiency depends on engine power, heat dissipation and the absence of aerodynamic blockage.

Mercedes success was primally driven by the engine superiority despite Red Bull often having the best aerodynamics under Newey's guidance.

Cowell was hired as CEO. He will be overseeing the entire F1 team rather than returning to an engine-related role.

Interesting article on Cowell talking about his changes.
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/why- ... er%20units.

[diffuser]

I have 0 doubts about Cowell and Newey

But i have a lot about krack and fallows

Really why do you think Krack is doing a bad job?

[peewon]

I have 0 doubts about Cowell and Newey

But i have a lot about krack and fallows

Krack is not a technical person. He seems fairly reasonable in everything he says publicly. Not much to judge him on otherwise. The only downside is that he isnt experienced enough in F1 compared to people like Andreas Stella so maybe has to defer more to guys like Fallows.

[AR3-GP]

Really why do you think Krack is doing a bad job?

Besides the obvious?

[Nikosar]

I once heard James Vowles talk about his decision to drop Logan Sargeant. As long as the car wasn't performing, he had nothing to complain about, but when they started to have a car capable of scoring points and Sergent wasn't up to the job, the decision was to drop him.

You can't compare a driver with a TP, but you can draw the parallel.

Fallows and Krack arrived when there was no team structure and a lack of infrastructure.

- Krack's first objective is to build a team structure. Is he achieving the result ? Yes.

- Fallows' goal is to build a fast car (in collaboration with other departments). Others departments are still shaping as well of the infrastructure. It is therefore still too "early" to say whether he has done a good or a bad job.

Now by that being said, even if we say it is "early", we can still argue about the “smaller” F1 teams capable of producing better packages, and about Aston, which finds itself lost after having had almost two years to produce an improvement.

We can also argue about Lawrence's attempt to sign James Allison and Diego Tondi (perhaps they wanted to replace Fallows?). It's easy to let someone go, but they're going to need a better replacement.

I understand everyone's frustrations and I, like you, am, especially when you see how hard Alonso pushes himself every weekend... but that's the present and we're hoping for a better 2026.

[SSJ4]

Aston Martin's Austin floor makes the car “untamable,” he says @carlosmiquelf1

In the free practice in Mexico they tested 4 different floors.

Would back the theory that mercedes wind tunnel doesn’t simulate rougher surfaces well. I can’t remember the specifics of it. Will have to check articles again when i have free time