Aston Martin targets to improve in-season development
After a tough start to their season, Aston Martin's CEO and team boss Andy Cowell has revealed that the Silverstone-based outfit targets to improve the efficiency of its in-season developments.
Aston Martin announced a change of team principal as part of a major management reshuffle ahead of the current season, with CEO Andy Cowell having taken over the position previously held by Mike Krack.
The British outfit explained that the change was necessary "for clarity of leadership and as part of a shift to a flatter structure". Andy Cowell will continue to assume the role of CEO, but he will also act as team principal from now on.
Aston Martin has also announced that it has separated its aerodynamics, engineering and performance departments into two divisions, with one dedicated trackside and the second one the AMR Technology Campus-based team. Both divisions will report into Andy Cowell.
The trackside team is now led by former team boss Mike Krack, who has taken on the role of Chief Trackside Officer.
The AMR Technology Campus-based team will be spearheaded by the team's new Chief Technical Officer, Enrico Cardile, who will oversee the architecture, design and build of new race cars. Cardile will begin his work after his gardening leave at Ferrari.
With Aston Martin's in-season development having been inconsistent over the past couple of seasons, Andy Cowell has pinpointed this very area to improve ahead of the upcoming season.
"The update the team brought to Austin for the United States Grand Prix last year provided a working example. It didn't deliver the performance step expected; it's been a case of digging deeper to understand why this happened and implementing changes so that when we bring our next update to the track, which will be our 2025 challenger at the season opener in Melbourne, we're in a better position and it does deliver what we expect.
"There is no lack of effort throughout the team. We definitely won the World Championship for the most updates in 2024, but those updates didn't deliver the laptime – and what everybody wants in this business is to deliver laptime.
"That's not to say we must get it right every time. I've seen statistics that show that in true research and development environments, a 20 per cent success rate is high. If we can get a 20 per cent success rate then that's good, but the difference is that this needs to happen at the AMR Technology Campus and not at the track.
"We need to make sure that all our tools and processes at the Technology Campus are working well enough to ensure that whenever we take an update to the circuit, we are at least 90 per cent certain that it's going to work on the track and meet our expectations.
"It's not easy to achieve, but it's what we need to be aiming for. We've got very powerful CFD tools and the most advanced wind tunnel in the sport coming online but they are only simulations; there will always be the risk of data not quite matching up with what we find on the circuit, but our simulations can give us a robust steer and I'm confident we can get to the point where we're right 90 per cent of the time.
"That's the level that World Championship-winning teams are operating at so that needs to be our aim at a minimum," concluded Cowell.
