2024 Aston Martin | Aramco F1 Team

[diffuser]

The next driver moves should not be judged by current pecking order of the teams. I saw a Helmut Marko quote where he claimed that RBPT and Mercedes were leading the pack in the 2026 PU development. Audi and Ferrari are "miles behind". He did not mention Honda. You can take it with a pinch of salt but he also very confidently predicted the pecking order before the 2021 aero regulations overhaul which I doubted but turned out to be accurate.

So to me the most coveted seats are Mercedes and RB. Toto and Marko will NOT bring in Alonso under any circumstance. Reason: George is very close with Toto (Toto hates Alonso as well from the Merc saga) and everyone knows about Max and Marko. I think Honda wants to have a Japanese driver at AM and is a wild card performance wise. This is why Alonso is already talking about retirement as a possibility suddenly. I think he doesnt think he has a seat for 2026 at a reasonable contender and 2025 will very much be RB dominated. He started the season talking about how great his physicals were and how it may enable him to race a long time to suddenly talking about evaluating his commitment level because he was sending out feelers to everyone probably and hasnt got a positive response. The only long shot is if Marko departs RB.

He has spies over at Merc, Audi, Ferrari and Honda ? That's why Hamilton left cause Ferrari is gonna have the worst PU in 2026 ? Sounds like BS to me.

There is no reason to think Honda will not have the best PU under the new PU regs. If you think otherwise, you're wrong. There is only 1 Japanese driver and he wants to stay at RBR. So they can want all they want.

[diffuser]

It's hard to see where podiums will come from until the tire performance is fixed and they find a little more top speed.

It's disappointing that they're still one of the slowest in a straight while now also losing their tire deg advantage over teams like McLaren and Ferrari.

But the noises from the team are still positive, which probably means they expected this and have developments in the pipe line to solve the problems.

Alternately, it's the rear suspension that Mercedes were late to the party in finishing that's creating some issues, especially in set up.

I don't know why you saying they are slow on straights.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/f1i.com/ne ... 4.html/amp
At race is a different story,but since they can't change the mapping,engine modes from qualification to race, only they can reduce the engine power. I don't have f1 tv or telemetry option. But would be amazing to see the topspeed comparison from each drivers from quali and race!

IF you're talking purely at qualifying and look at this ... They're losing a lot of time under braking. Every green hill is a braking zone. The bigger the braking the more time they're losing.

[SSJ4]

So what do we think the issue is regarding being so slow on high fuel. Tyre deg doesn’t seem as bad after two races. Granted saudí is a low deg track.

But also on the other side. Wouldn’t that make Aston Martin more of a threat during sprint weekends. Since the sprint races are low fuel.

[xReVo]

Top speed is not the problem, I seem to hear the same things as Quartararo's Yamaha. It's the last thing that really matters in a car. The key thing in a car is torque and acceleration, who gets to a certain speed first and not who will have the highest speed at the end. Ferrari by now would have won every world championship from 2017 to 2023. Another important thing is the downforce in fast corners, another thing that Aston Martin has improved compared to last year but is not even remotely comparable to Redbull . And finally obviously tire wear, but not only that, the Aston didn't degrade much, it simply doesn't have pace with full fuel, another huge problem. Enough of this efficiency thing. I just hope that the qualifying performances are really such and are not Alonso's exploits, given that the f1 graph said that Aston was 3 tenths behind Ferrari. In any case, Melbourne should be a friendly track, we hope for improvements because it is essential to have them immediately to avoid having a sidereal gap in the championship. For 2026, if Ford uses the Redbull engine then they won't be fighting for the title (in F1 it takes years of knowledge and although Cosworth engines were once crazy), Audi thinks the same thing, so Ferrari and Mercedes will lead the ranking, Honda permitting if they make good engines but I have doubts (I didn't include Renault because although they have enormous knowledge in engines, they don't have suitable structures).

[NAPI10]

So what do we think the issue is regarding being so slow on high fuel. Tyre deg doesn’t seem as bad after two races. Granted saudí is a low deg track.

But also on the other side. Wouldn’t that make Aston Martin more of a threat during sprint weekends. Since the sprint races are low fuel.

This car will be a pole contender in Wet Quali & have a strong race pace on a damp track.

[diffuser]

So what do we think the issue is regarding being so slow on high fuel. Tyre deg doesn’t seem as bad after two races. Granted saudí is a low deg track.

But also on the other side. Wouldn’t that make Aston Martin more of a threat during sprint weekends. Since the sprint races are low fuel.

I guess we'll find out how the examination of the tires after the race yesterday went. That is one thing ...
Mike Krack said the problem was ride height related after the race in Bahrain. You need consistent ride height with these cars at all fuel levels to get max DF.

My other guess would be that something isn't working well in the braking zones with regards to ride height. The shift in weight is causing issues with the ride height and their falling out of the perfect ride height window.

Maybe Alonso can't brake as hard as he'd like cause of the ride height window? ...I don't know.

[diffuser]

https://www.planetf1.com/news/genius-fe ... easing-you

Asked if he thought was ‘intentional’ on Saturday to throw off the competition, Krack said: “I don’t know.

“We were not in great shape again in the beginning of the Hards. It was only coming later when the car got better. And that’s something as I said also for the for the medium stint, we were not great at the beginning.”


That sounds ride height related with the fuel level.

The rear suspension is Mercs but I don't think that Merc supplies the springs for the rear suspension. If anyone knows for sure let me know. There is probably a large variation in the springs that they can choose from.

[SSJ4]

So what do we think the issue is regarding being so slow on high fuel. Tyre deg doesn’t seem as bad after two races. Granted saudí is a low deg track.

But also on the other side. Wouldn’t that make Aston Martin more of a threat during sprint weekends. Since the sprint races are low fuel.

I guess we'll find out how the examination of the tires after the race yesterday went. That is one thing ...
Mike Krack said the problem was ride height related after the race in Bahrain. You need consistent ride height with these cars at all fuel levels to get max DF.

My other guess would be that something isn't working well in the braking zones with regards to ride height. The shift in weight is causing issues with the ride height and their falling out of the perfect ride height window.

Maybe Alonso can't brake as hard as he'd like cause of the ride height window? ...I don't know.

Is the ride height too high? I don’t seem them sparking or bottoming much compared to the other top 4 teams

I still think it’s related to Mercedes new rear suspension.

[OnEcRiTiCaL]

We can see on the race Alonso behind Piastri at lap 5 use DRS and in 2nd drs zone alonso top speed is 324 but after in the main straight with DRS just 311. Probably Aston used all the energy in 2nd drs and in the 3th DRS no energy left.

[KimiRai]

Its very easy to pinpoint it on something external and maybe the issue is another, we'll see, what matters is that they can find a fix

[peewon]

He has spies over at Merc, Audi, Ferrari and Honda ? That's why Hamilton left cause Ferrari is gonna have the worst PU in 2026 ? Sounds like BS to me.

There is no reason to think Honda will not have the best PU under the new PU regs. If you think otherwise, you're wrong. There is only 1 Japanese driver and he wants to stay at RBR. So they can want all they want.

Marko, for all his faults, is not a guy I associate with false pretense. And yes, I do believe information flows freely through the paddock. More so from some teams than others. Common reason for that people moving from team to team. Recent example is Aston Martin last year when rumors about their simulation performance figures were being discussed not only in the paddock but made their way to twitter months before testing. Its possible its a smokescreen from Marko but thats not his MO in my estimation.

Hamilton literally had to be dragged to Mercedes by Lauda and Brawn in 2014 who did know about the Merc PU advantage. Im guessing F1 was keen on it too considering how crucial he was/is to their ambitions for the US market. Maybe things have changed since Marko made his comments. Maybe there is something he doesnt know. Its a good point that F1 would love to see the combination of Ferrari and Hamilton win, I concede that.

I dont see anything that rules Tsunoda out as a candidate at AM. Theres also Iwasa. Alonso is making Lance look bad. But more than anything Im basing this on Alonso's comments.

[KimiRai]

Asked about the future of Fernando Alonso, Mike Krack says: "It's no secret that [Alonso] first wants to decide for himself what he wants to do. And I think it's also no secret that I keep saying that we want to continue working with Fernando.
"And I also said that the most important thing is that we give him a fast car so that he believes in this project and in this team. And we have to discuss everything else in the coming weeks".
"It is clear that a driver of this caliber is attractive to everyone. But we will try to keep him"

[KimiRai]

Alonso explicitly mentioned the update on the front corner that it gave them a little bit of an improvement. I messed with brightness and contrast on some photos and compared them with Bahrain but didn't see anything new on the outside. I don't think he is lying there, so it must be something you can't really see from shots taken from the front, or I'm just blind

[diffuser]

So what do we think the issue is regarding being so slow on high fuel. Tyre deg doesn’t seem as bad after two races. Granted saudí is a low deg track.

But also on the other side. Wouldn’t that make Aston Martin more of a threat during sprint weekends. Since the sprint races are low fuel.

I guess we'll find out how the examination of the tires after the race yesterday went. That is one thing ...
Mike Krack said the problem was ride height related after the race in Bahrain. You need consistent ride height with these cars at all fuel levels to get max DF.

My other guess would be that something isn't working well in the braking zones with regards to ride height. The shift in weight is causing issues with the ride height and their falling out of the perfect ride height window.

Maybe Alonso can't brake as hard as he'd like cause of the ride height window? ...I don't know.

Is the ride height too high? I don’t seem them sparking or bottoming much compared to the other top 4 teams

I still think it’s related to Mercedes new rear suspension.

Just because it is the Merc suspension doesn't mean it's Merc's fault. Like I said I don't think Merc supply the springs.

[diffuser]

In 2023 in Australia most teams did 50 laps on hards and would have finished on the hards if the race wasn't red flagged. So I don't think tire wear will be a problem there either.