Aston Martin explains its current difficulties

Following a brilliant 2023 F1 season that saw Aston Martin score eight podium finishes courtesy of Fernando Alonso, the Silverstone-based outfit has been seriously off the pace so far this year.

Although Aston Martin Formula 1 technical director Dan Fallows had claimed that the Silverstone-based team had made the hoped-for steps with its new AMR24 at its launch, the British outfit has struggled for pace in the first half of the current season.

Asked what has caused the issues, Fallows said that the current regulations led to cars that are extremely sensitive to a series of extrenal factors.

“These cars, with these regulations, they're very complicated ground effect cars. They're very sensitive to things like ride heights and ambient temperatures and tyres and everything else.

“And that does cause us a lot of issues in terms of where we want to add downforce or to add performance to the car. It's not as simple as just adding downforce and everything comes to you. There's always some kind of characteristic of the aerodynamic package which comes along with that.

“And it's just a question of making sure that as you dial up the performance, that you don't sort of introduce any of these either instabilities or characteristic changes.

“And I think we've seen that generally things tend to work the way we expect, up to a point, but then they're not always things that suit the driver or suit the characteristics of the car. So it's a constant sort of battle to try and improve the performance in both ways.

The British outfit have already completed some significant stages of the construction of its new Silverstone-based factory. Having opened its doors in July 2023, the new base that is referred to as AMR Technology Campus houses departments including the engineers, Research and Development, commercial and IT.

“The lights really never go out at the technology campus at the moment. And it's a testament to the fact that everybody is hugely motivated in getting on top of these things. But obviously, you know, it's an ongoing process and we'll keep sticking at it until we've fixed our issues.

“I think the thing for us is we're a team that's grown incredibly quickly and we're carrying on growing. And we can identify, as we get into a state which is closer to being able to challenge for race wins and championships, we can start to see as we're on that journey that there are gaps in our expertise or where certain people could bring something to us.

Aston Martin has recently announced the arrival of Andy Cowell and Enrico Cardile, who will join the Silverstone-headquartered outfit after a two-decade stint at Ferrari.

“And with the announcements of Andy Cowell recently and Enrico Cardile, these are people with a huge amount of experience. The fact that we're able to attract talent like that to the team just, I think, is a testament to just what an exciting project it is. And they can really see something and the potential in it, which is why we're excited to have them along.