2024 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[diffuser]

There is no evidence if the next car will be fast or slow, off-season development wasn’t that bad.
It’s the end off the regs circle, the top teams won’t find a lot of lap time.
Noone knows how much Newey is already involved in the background. He can advice AMR for sure how to avoid bottoming.
Their Melbourne car will be fully developed in the Mercedes‘ tunnel until Christmas, but everything after that will benefit from the new tunnel. Maybe their Imola update once works…

Alonso said that Newey's first influence will be for 2026 car. He is no longer part of RB Formula One team but still works the Red Bull 17 hypercar. I do not know why every time people keep saying that Newey is passing secretly information.

people are hopeful haha. and the only reason that he wouldn't be sharing information is if hes in need of a very well deserved vacation, and told no one to bother him until his gardening is up. thats entirely possible. but we also know that hes a very competitive and detail oriented guy that probably wants things to be in some sort of order before he actually comes to the office. and newey has been on the cutting edge of "pushing legal boundaries" for years, just like any successful car designer in f1 is. i wouldnt be suprised if alonso texts him from time to time and happens to casually bring up different settup challenges while they talk about good vacation spots either haha

He's not on gardening leave. He is no longer doing F1 work for RBR. but he still has to finish the Red Bull RB17 hypercar. In a youtube interview, said it would mostly be completed around the end of February 2025. After that it would move to manufacturing and there would be the occasional question on it but he would be free to work for AMR.

[zoroastar]

Aston Martin signed McLaren simulator driver Daniel Juncadella.

Afaik he worked for McLaren just before this so he will have previous experience on their sim (I imagine he stopped working for them), he's good. Previously on a podcast he said Newey will not cheat the gardening leave and give AM info, if I remember correctly because he doesn't want to help people in the technical team who don't deserve it and wants to see them perform (or not) on their own

From October but now relevant:

I am not so convinced that the current personal at the factory knows exactly what route to go.

McLaren simulator driver Daniel Juncadella said Newey doesn't understand what Aston is doing either

im not doubting you. but how would a sim driver, from mclaren, know what newey will or will not do, way back in october? and how would he know whether newey has any clue about what aston is doing? and why would newey discuss that with him? ill have to go searching for this podcast that you speak of haha there must be something left out here unless newey discusses other car designs with his main competitors sim drivers

[KimiRai]

im not doubting you. but how would a sim driver, from mclaren, know what newey will or will not do, way back in october? and how would he know whether newey has any clue about what aston is doing? and why would newey discuss that with him? ill have to go searching for this podcast that you speak of haha there must be something left out here unless newey discusses other car designs with his main competitors sim drivers

Not that he's necessarily right, of course, but I guess things go around in the f1 paddock

And this is something Newey has done in the past. Seeing who were the bad apples in the team and who was underperforming. Helping them immediately would complicate that process.

[KimiRai]

I imagine the real reason neither Alonso or Stroll are driving the car in post-season tests, other than resting, is because the car is a failed concept and there is nothing to take for next year. So let the rookies practice

[collindsilva]

I imagine the real reason neither Alonso or Stroll are driving the car in post-season tests, other than resting, is because the car is a failed concept and there is nothing to take for next year. So let the rookies practice

It would not be a failed concept; the car was top 4 at starting of the season.

[KimiRai]

I imagine the real reason neither Alonso or Stroll are driving the car in post-season tests, other than resting, is because the car is a failed concept and there is nothing to take for next year. So let the rookies practice

It would not be a failed concept; the car was top 4 at starting of the season.

Think that was a mirage and it is a failed concept and why upgrades failed. It was suggested in a Motorsport article that they're changing it for next year towards AMR23 slow corners philosophy

Maybe the trick is to develop a car for slow corners and gain fast corner performance through front wing aero trickery

Which makes me think, maybe Dan wasn't so much to blame and it was the FIA that destroyed Aston. They screwed up that year's car, confused them and put them on the wrong track for the next year

[RoadRep]

im not doubting you. but how would a sim driver, from mclaren, know what newey will or will not do, way back in october? and how would he know whether newey has any clue about what aston is doing? and why would newey discuss that with him? ill have to go searching for this podcast that you speak of haha there must be something left out here unless newey discusses other car designs with his main competitors sim drivers

He's friends with Nuno Pinto, that's why he knew stuff. He's now also on Alonso's A14 management program.
To be precise, he said about Newey that he wouldn't start working before the right date because there would be layoffs and those people out of the team would talk to the press afterwards and say: Newey didn't do any gardening.

[-wkst-]

Alonso said that Newey's first influence will be for 2026 car. He is no longer part of RB Formula One team but still works the Red Bull 17 hypercar. I do not know why every time people keep saying that Newey is passing secretly information.

people are hopeful haha. and the only reason that he wouldn't be sharing information is if hes in need of a very well deserved vacation, and told no one to bother him until his gardening is up. thats entirely possible. but we also know that hes a very competitive and detail oriented guy that probably wants things to be in some sort of order before he actually comes to the office. and newey has been on the cutting edge of "pushing legal boundaries" for years, just like any successful car designer in f1 is. i wouldnt be suprised if alonso texts him from time to time and happens to casually bring up different settup challenges while they talk about good vacation spots either haha

He's not on gardening leave. He is no longer doing F1 work for RBR. but he still has to finish the Red Bull RB17 hypercar. In a youtube interview, said it would mostly be completed around the end of February 2025. After that it would move to manufacturing and there would be the occasional question on it but he would be free to work for AMR.

And the work on the hypercar coincidentally should finish at the end of February, when his contract expires...

He said after the presentation at AMR that he is looking forward for extended holidays with his wife, free time. He did not sound like the hypercar project needed a lot of his time anymore. Schmidt from AMuS wrote back in April that Newey must work on the car until September.

Newey is a (future) shareholder of AMR, so his big interest is AMR. I would be very surprised if he doesn't sit already anywhere in England or South Africa and thinks about his AMR tasks. In every aspect. Like Cardile. Good that the "organizer" of the technical team arrives in a few weeks.

Cardile put obviously the right people at the right place at Ferrari, they are successfull. Together with Newey this MUST work. "organizer" and "genius".

I imagine the real reason neither Alonso or Stroll are driving the car in post-season tests, other than resting, is because the car is a failed concept and there is nothing to take for next year. So let the rookies practice

It would not be a failed concept; the car was top 4 at starting of the season.

It wasn't that bad as at the end of the season, but it was never top4. Race pace wise they were always nowhere.

I thought the same as KimiRai that both drivers know that there isn't anything to gain at this test, both also had a run with the new tyres before. ALO race injured (shoulder) the last 4 GPs too.

[diffuser]

I imagine the real reason neither Alonso or Stroll are driving the car in post-season tests, other than resting, is because the car is a failed concept and there is nothing to take for next year. So let the rookies practice

Most of the drivers driving in the tests, that drove in season, are drivers that drove for other teams or took over the seat late in the year. The Exceptions are Russell but there are two other drivers with him, so how much driving is he gonna do? Norris and Piastri with 1 other driver over at McLaren, so someone is gonna do lots of driving there. Charles is there with his brother and 1 other driver, so not sure how much driving Charles will do. All the other drivers that drove in season that are driving in the tests are either driving for a different team at the test or took over the seat late in the 2024 season.

[KimiRai]

This weekend I tested the old [sim] and the new one, which is still under development and there are still things to be done. But it's a huge, huge step forward. It's better than the McLaren simulator I tested. And it's a huge step forward compared to the simulator they already had. This alone is a step forward, but there is still work to be done to improve things because everything requires a structure and a clear direction.

https://www.elconfidencial.com/deportes ... r_4020045/

[-wkst-]

edit:
Soymotor is the source, it should be said for context that he compared it with the OLD McLaren simulator. He hasn't tested the new McLaren simulator.

I think there are a few more interesting statements from him in this article (with a translator):

Q: We've heard from teams and drivers who have gone crazy with these ground effect cars. After driving them in the simulator and then seeing them on the track performing in a different way, are they so complex, so convoluted and disconcerting?

A: Yes, they are difficult. A very quick way to explain it is that the car's good performance window is very small. It's very easy to go over or under. With the height of the car you may go 1 mm higher and not take advantage of the downforce that the bottom of the wings gives you, and go two millimeters below and touch the ground on all sides and you cannot take advantage of it. This is the problem, when you are not in this performance window, the car is a mess, and the feeling is very bad. And this is not so noticeable in the simulator, it is more noticeable on the track. But there are ways to make you notice these small differences in the simulator itself. This is what McLaren is very good at. I've always seen that they've been able to take advantage of the feedback from the simulator to transmit it to the track, and with the new simulator they've brought out, the intention at Aston Martin is for everything to improve.

[...]but there is still work to improve things because everything requires a structure and a clear direction. You now take the Aston technical staff, the pilots, the simulator drivers, engineers, the factory, the wind tunnel... You say, "I have Messi, Cristiano, Mbappé, I have everything", but that requires a structure. They can be all three very good, but if they don't work together they don't score goals. At Aston they have all the ingredients to make it a success, and now there has to be a structure to make the right decisions, to be able to take advantage of the improvements that come... It's still early days, but you sign Newey and all the people, and there has to be a structure and a leader to make it all work.

[KimiRai]

Autoracer (previously formu1a.uno) also confirm Cardile will start working at Aston in less than a month. So early January most likely.

From a technical point of view, the first official outing on the track of Loic Serra , the new technical director of the Italian team after the departure of Enrico Cardile, who will start working for Aston Martin in less than a month, was certainly more important.

https://autoracer.it/it/sorpresa-ferrar ... -abu-dhabi

Fernando said Cowell has already changed some of the weaknesses he saw in the team. Hopefully this means better communication and coordination which was probably not ideal

[zoroastar]

im not doubting you. but how would a sim driver, from mclaren, know what newey will or will not do, way back in october? and how would he know whether newey has any clue about what aston is doing? and why would newey discuss that with him? ill have to go searching for this podcast that you speak of haha there must be something left out here unless newey discusses other car designs with his main competitors sim drivers

Not that he's necessarily right, of course, but I guess things go around in the f1 paddock

And this is something Newey has done in the past. Seeing who were the bad apples in the team and who was underperforming. Helping them immediately would complicate that process.

yeah i could see him doing that. after his interview where he tells about putting a mole into the early redbul/jaguar team to see who the bad apples were. may have a little to do with alonso saying how important it is for aston to show some improvement before newey arrives too.

[Waz]

Alonso said that Newey's first influence will be for 2026 car. He is no longer part of RB Formula One team but still works the Red Bull 17 hypercar. I do not know why every time people keep saying that Newey is passing secretly information.

people are hopeful haha. and the only reason that he wouldn't be sharing information is if hes in need of a very well deserved vacation, and told no one to bother him until his gardening is up. thats entirely possible. but we also know that hes a very competitive and detail oriented guy that probably wants things to be in some sort of order before he actually comes to the office. and newey has been on the cutting edge of "pushing legal boundaries" for years, just like any successful car designer in f1 is. i wouldnt be suprised if alonso texts him from time to time and happens to casually bring up different settup challenges while they talk about good vacation spots either haha

He's not on gardening leave. He is no longer doing F1 work for RBR. but he still has to finish the Red Bull RB17 hypercar. In a youtube interview, said it would mostly be completed around the end of February 2025. After that it would move to manufacturing and there would be the occasional question on it but he would be free to work for AMR.

The RB17 was already launched, in October if I remember correctly.

That project is over apart from any promotional work that Newey might have agreed to.

[Nikosar]

I imagine the real reason neither Alonso or Stroll are driving the car in post-season tests, other than resting, is because the car is a failed concept and there is nothing to take for next year. So let the rookies practice

Alonso missed the Abu Dhabi post-season test due to illness. He Said he feels good but need to recover. Aston did not give any reason about Stroll.

But you have a valid point of view, if they will have a new car then let the rookies practice plus some rookies have contractual time to be spent on track per year.

I believe there are multiple reasons in the mix.

At the end only Russel and Leclerc clocked a lot of laps. Norris and Piastri splitted their time.