The Aston Martin owner was surprised by his question after Alonso’s podiums

Lawrence Take a WalkThe billionaire owner of Aston Martin has never hidden his ambition. At the presentation of the car in February, neither he nor anyone in the team thought that his AMR23 would make a big step this year, as the car with the most improvement compared to last year, capable of achieving with Fernando Alonso at the wheel three podiums in the first three races, at three circuits as different as Bahrain, Jeddah and Melbourne. However, the firm’s head honcho is clear about his true intentions. These are not the podiums. He wants to win. And that was reflected in the question he asked the Silverstone team’s Team Principal, Mike Krack, after Alonso achieved another podium finish at the Albert Park circuit.

“The mission of the team was very clear. Lawrence Stroll quickly told us: ‘When are we going to win?’ Obviously, he’s happy that we made a step, but not enough for his ambitions.” expressed blow up in statements released by the official F1 portal.

“The good thing is, with Lawrence, you know where you stand: he wants more and we have to deliver more.”he added about Lawrence.

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Lawrence already made it clear in February that Aston Martin’s aim is to become a champion frame within a few years, following the example of teams that have achieved this such as Red Bull and Mercedes. To do this, he tried to combine all the necessary ingredients: he is building a large factory because the current one does not belong to a champion team, he is building his own wind tunnel (they now use Mercedes in Brackley), he hired dozens of engineers from the biggest, such as the one who finished second to Adrian Newey at Red Bull, now the great aerodynamic leader of Aston Martin, Dan Fallows.

And he signed a two-time world champion with a hunger for victories like Fernando Alonso to lead the project and take advantage of his great sensitivity behind the wheels and ability to help the engineers with his instructions to develop of the car in the right direction.

Lawrence never hid that all that gear needed “time” to settle in and start working at full speed. He did not expect a good start in 2023, but far from being satisfied, he wanted more, and aware of the enormous room for improvement that his car has in the evolutions to come, he has already set the goal of winning the group .

When will Aston Martin win?

With the excellent Red Bull, and with Ferrari and Mercedes following Aston Martin, albeit closely, the green team now has a big challenge in continuous development to maintain the level and maybe even closer to Red Bull throughout the year.

To do this, it has been confirmed that the current car is a very good basis on which to improve. The team reiterated that between now and the end of the year “two thirds of the car” will be new with some evolutions already announced by Mike Krack coming from Baku and Imola.

Aston Martin has 37% more wind tunnel time allowed and CFD simulations to get closer to the top. Even the car is new (One of its competitors is an evolution of last year), so it can be improved.

Another positive point is to see that the base car adapts well to different tracks and Mike Krack has already clarified that tracks like Barcelona (due to its extreme tire wear, one of Aston Martin’s strong points, which is why it takes care of the tires) or Monaco (due to the lack of straight lines, the car’s weak point, and its slow corners, its strong point) can be two favorable tracks.

“We have three circuits with different characteristics. Being competitive in all three, we are confident that we can also be competitive in other circuits. But the scope of Today’s circuits are very different: you have Baku with a big straight and then Monaco without a straight. Things like this are always going to change the grid a little bit.”Krack commented on the F1 website.

“And it can happen when you have a small margin, it can happen … This is the situation we are in and I have said it before, we have to be at our best all the time, 100% to make the most of it”, he comments, aware that if they do not touch perfection in the execution of the weekends, Mercedes or Ferrari are very close and there may be appointments where the green car is not on the podium.

In this sense, another of the points in favor of Aston Martin relies on its car with Alonsoa pilot who is rarely wrong and always seeks perfection in everything he does and the people around him. “It’s funny, if someone said you’d have three podiums after the first three races, I wouldn’t have believed it either. It shows the champion we have, it’s unbelievable.”then Mike Krack.