The best weapon of Aston Martin and Alonso to desire everything

Aston Martin he continues to advance at full speed, day and night, in the creation of what must be his greatest jewel: his new factory. That is the pillar of any good team, a good headquarters that allows all processes to be optimized and communication between departments to create the best parts, in the shortest possible time and in the most -proper way to have a better vehicle on the track. That is the biggest weapon that should push the project of Aston Martinthat this course 2023 began to surprise everyone in the first year of Fernando Alonso with the second best car on the grid in the first two rounds and three podiums in three races.

Expectations are high for the group’s new headquarters Silverstone, where the green box will cost around 200 million pounds to build. so, Aston Martin posted a video on Youtube where he revealed to all his followers how the works of the new house of Aston Martin and its long-awaited wind tunnel are progressing.

A great factory to be a great team

Aston Martin is at the beginning of its great project to create a champion team, as they did in their time Mercedes or Red Bullhe. Those from Milton Keynes started in F1 in 2005 after buying Jaguar and didn’t win their first title until 5 years later, in 2010 with Sebastian Vettel, the first of his four consecutive titles. And actually, red bull This is the dominant team, one of the biggest in F1. Another example is that of Mercedes. The stars earned Brawn GP in 2010 (former Honda structure) and did not start their era of domain until 2014, winning the title in his fifth year. Today, it is one of the biggest groups in current F1. Starting from that base, considering its owner’s multi-million dollar resources, Lawrence Take a Walkthe question is clear: Why can’t Aston Martin repeat the success of Mercedes or Red Bull?

This will be the headquarters

Aston Martin is the structure that was once Racing Point, formerly Force India, or Jordan’s former team. In fact, the current factory where the green team works is the one used for the first time by Jordan in 1991, and has some of its employees working in temporary facilities right next door. It also does not have its own wind tunnel and in order to create its cars it has to use the wind tunnel of Mercedes (its motorist) in Brackley. All this will change. Lawrence Stroll wants to create a leading team and for this, the creation of a large factory right next to the current one and a new own wind tunnel is underway. A larger factory was created, designed to improve communication between all departments and increase productivity, which is why the new headquarters will have the design department in an open-plan office.

The new headquarters will have 3 adjoining buildings with a total area of ​​37,000 square meters. The design, manufacturing and marketing departments are located in Building 1 (completion period: first quarter of 2023). And in this video, you can see how Building 1 is almost ready.

In Building 2 there will be a new wind tunnel, where they hope to have it ready in the last quarter of 2024. After that, it needs to be calibrated and check that the data from the wind tunnel matches the data from the track, in order to work on the cars later. The wind tunnel is therefore expected to have a direct impact, especially on the 2026 car, although the question is whether Fernando Alonsowhich now has 41 years and that he reiterated that he wanted to continue “Two or three more years in F1”whether or not he will continue as a driver or if, on the contrary, he will take another position to continue pushing within the team.

For now, Aston Martin uses the Mercedes wind tunnel in Brackleyseveral kilometers away, facilities they will stop using once they have their own ‘toy’ at home to run their simulations on.

and in Building 3, Aston Martin proposed to improve the lives of its workers. It will find a gym and facilities to increase the comfort of employees. That means Aston Martin is in the middle of building something big. A house of a large set. A factory that invites you to dream.

powerful engineers

Besides a large factory, with better processes, and the signing of a champion like Fernando Alonso to drive the current work, Aston Martin has also been growing since the arrival of its billionaire owner, Lawrence Stroll, in terms of human assets.

It did this by recruiting a lot of minds from top F1 teams like Red Bull. Dozens of highly respected engineers such as Dan Fallows, former head of aerodynamics at Red Bull, or Eric Blandin, responsible for aerodynamics at Mercedes. For example, when Aston Martin introduced a sidepod design similar to last year’s Red Bull, the team’s energy drink advisor, Marko Helmutrecalled the great ‘brain drain’ that took place towards the Aston Martin.