Aston Martin and a repeating pattern: beware of Hungary

After what happened to F1 Silverstone GPwith the Fernando Alonso in the 7th last position of the Grand Prixthe Team Principal of the green team, Mike Krack, and Fernando Alonso himself, admitted that they needed to analyze the data to understand what happened. Aston Martin He had a lower performance in the last two races and several teams that were behind him at the start switched in front of him. The improvement of their rivals is not stable, both for Mercedes and Ferrari, which work very well in one weekend, and not so much in others. And now, it remains to be seen if McLaren and Williams also follow the same path. As well as bettering rivals at some tracks, Aston Martin will have to look at whether its worse performance in the last two races is due to the characteristics of the circuit or a greater stagnation in car development. These days, andAt the Silverstone factory they will focus part of their focus on understanding what happened. Of course, in the British GP there is no anxiety. “Calm down. Patience,” said a team member in MD, surely there will be more tracks that will be fine for the green car.

To understand the Aston Martin’s speed difference in recent races, It is important to understand that the development of rivals has an influence, but in these late races the design of the tracks can also do it (and a lot). To understand where Aston Martin is better, it is important to study how the English car fared in the first ten races. A very suggestive pattern of what is to come can be obtained, especially after what happened in the last five appointments.

From Monaco, up and down

Fernando Alonso managed to lead the Aston Martin to be the second best car on all types of tracks at the start of the course. In the first 5 races, the man from Oviedo was 3rd in all of them except fourth, in Australia, where Mercedes had the best pace. And in Monaco, the Aston Martin showed its greatest strength: its slow cornering performance. On a circuit like the Principality, the Spaniard was able to challenge Verstappen more than ever. He held the pole and the victory. That was the only race where Red Bull suffered from not taking a victory.

In Barcelona,​​​​the drop in performance was surprising compared to the first 6 Grands Prix. Mercedes, which presented a new package, performed perfectly on a track that did not suit the green car, which was also influenced by Fernando’s errors in the ‘qualy’ and the low temperature of the track, which benefited Mercedes. Subsequently, he went from being 7th in Barcelona,​​​​​​to being the second best car and driver in Canada, next to Verstappen. And from that, he is far away again in Austria (5th) and also in Silverstonewhere teams like McLaren and Williams made big strides.

a common pattern

From here can be taken common pattern: Aston Martin fails in fast cornering layouts, with high aerodynamic efficiency, and where the tires that suffer the most are the front wheels.. He is also not helped by his DRS, an element on which they have focused to improve their performance. For his part, at tracks where the limit is set by the rear wheels, on tracks with strong braking and traction, the so-called ‘Stop and Go’, the car has worked well so far.

Hungary, favorable circuit

As explained above, in the Hungarian GP, ​​in the so-called ‘Monaco Without Walls’, Aston Martin is expected to re-evaluate. If it’s not there, that should be something surprising. In Hungary the cars will carry the maximum load configuration. It is a layout full of slow or medium speed curves and few straights. Looks perfect for Aston Martin. It’s a litmus test to see if the car keeps flying through slow corners and on mousetrap tracks.

But there is more. Silverstone is a track that requires good performance in fast corners, but it also has some slow tracks. And in turn, you need a lot of speed in the straight. That combination did not go well for Aston Martin.

In this regard, we asked an Aston Martin member at Silverstone why the car is fast in Canada despite having long straights and not in Austria. He recalled that despite the fact that both tracks had long straight lines, the configuration of the car differed from both because of its design.

I should have more good races

From here, once it seems clear what kind of tracks will suit the current Aston Martin, the theory goes that Budapest should be a favorable track for the green car. And maybe there is more. Another must be Singapore. But so are other circuits. However, in practice, it will be necessary to see if their rivals also thrive on this kind of more buzzard circuit.

In Britain, Alonso was unfazed. He highlighted the many points he added to his massive initial push, making it clear that anyone who wants to reduce the overall classification from now on will be more complicated. And, when asked by MD, Fernando expressed hope that his car will once again perform well on other tracks. “More weekends with a top car? We’ll see, I guess. And even if they don’t come, McLaren will have to recover a hundred-odd points from us. Little by little they’re starting.. “.