The surprising comparison between Alonso and Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso added 3 podiums in the first 3 races of the year with an Aston Martin which was the second best car in two of these events, and the third in Australia. It started away from Red Bull, but The aim of those from Silverstone is to improve the excellent single-seater base they have in 2023 to be as close as possible to those from Milton Keynes and continue above Mercedes and Ferrari. All this, along with a Fernando Alonso who gave this project the leadership it needed on and off the track. An example of this is the words he dedicated to her Dan Fallows, technical director of Aston Martin and big brain behind the creation of the AMR23 on the official Formula 1 podcast, called ‘Beyond the Grid’.

The ideologue of this car, who was a great apprentice of F1 guru Adrian Newey at Red Bull, did not hesitate to highlight the passion that Fernando Alonso brought to the ambitious Aston Martin project. In that sense, he compared it to “something like the Tasmanian Devil” for his ability to go all out and spread that mentality to all employees on the team.

Fallows was surprised by the competitiveness of the Oviedo player from their first meetings. “What surprised me the most was the level of his passion. Having been in F1 for so long… he told himself that he has been in the sport longer than he has been out of it, and his level of dedication… his passion, the interest and the drive wanting to be involved in every aspect that I can as a driver and want to lead us as a team,” he said.

“He’s got that passion from day one. He’s kind of like the Tasmanian Devil,” he said with a laugh. “And we all reacted to him. This is a big help for the team. Last year was a very difficult year (Aston Martin started last year with the wrong concept car) and all these things helped lift the team to bring that new energy. And he’s a big part of it.”

The key for Aston Martin: development

Aston Martin has achieved more, exceeding any expectations, in the first steps he had in his plan. He confirmed the excellent car base it has, proved that data from the wind tunnel and simulations correlated well with track performance, and identified its strengths and weaknesses. Now, Aston Martin, as the second best car on the grid, must follow the following steps: that of developing its 2023 single-seater, a car that They have already assured that they will change in “two thirds” from the beginning to the end of the year.

In that sense, Aston Martin has very good options to catch up with Red Bull and distance itself from Mercedes and Ferrari. You have more time than the regulation allows for using wind tunnel and CFD simulationFurthermore, his car is new (his rivals’ is an evolution) and therefore the improvement margin of the AMR23 should be greater than his opponents directly. Now, that theory must become reality.

“I will not be disappointed not to win a race. We have achieved more than expected so far. We hope to go up and try to challenge Mercedes and Ferrari, but what we have achieved is more than we dreamed of. Of course, the most important thing is to find consistency, we don’t want it to be an isolated good year and then return to the middle zone. We wish 2023 to be the beginning of a great journey”argument., commented Fallows, who has no doubt that Aston Martin can maintain that pulse against the best teams in F1.

In this field, he emphasized that in 2022 Aston Martin is already one of the teams that has improved the most in the second part of its car development course. In addition, he wants to make it clear that the priority is not to be well this year only, but 2023 is the trend to follow, improving more and more with the creation of his new factory and its own wind tunnel.

“We’re not the team we want to be in three years. There are many things we need to improve, but we have shown that we can get good performance out of the car in a relatively short time.”Fallows said.

“I think what’s forgotten is the improvement we made last year. And that shows what we can do with the evolutionary race. That’s what we have to go on. So there is no reason. We can continue to do things with the tools we have. Once we improve, we will start fighting to win races.”, he pointed out, repeating that he will not be disappointed not to win a race, however “magical” it is. But the priority is the continuous improvement of the car.

This year’s car or the AMR24

One of the doubts about the current AMR23’s development is how far Aston Martin will go before it starts thinking about the 2024 car. However, Fallows recalled that the regulations will not be subject to major changes next year and, therefore, left the glimpse that the work they will do on this course will be key for 2024.

“We are more than focused on the car this year, we have made radical changes in the last months. The regulations will not change much for next year and the AMR23 will be our main preference for a long time. Then , we will look at AMR24 later this season,” he revealed.

“We want to make sure that, despite taking a big step forward this year, we don’t fall behind, and to do that we have to keep developing the car. It’s just as important to build a good car as it is to stay in the development race throughout the season, so it’s a great opportunity to go all out with the AMR23 and see what we can do with it.”.

Of course, he remembered the strength of the teams against which they were measured: “I’m very happy with our position after three races, but we can’t underestimate how good our rivals are and it’s very difficult to stay there all year. That’s what it’s all about this project, staying at the top and gradually climbing to fight for victories and the title.”

“I don’t know if Mercedes and Ferrari have backed off, but it’s clear to me that they haven’t progressed as much as they hoped. They have a long development race ahead of them, although it’s clear that Red Bull is the team to beat. They must work very hard . hard with the improvements to reduce the distance, but I can’t say that they lowered their performance, that’s just why Red Bull made their job a little harder”, he concluded. to his opponents.