Aston Martin and its expected evolution for Imola: the moment of truth

He F1 Emilia-Romagna GP This weekend is marked in red on most teams’ calendars. McLaren progress was made, bringing improvements to Miami (all in Norris’s car and part in Piastri’s), and after that, a large part of the F1 grid teams are expected to bring their first important package of evolutions to the Italian track, which will serve as the opening of the European F1 season.

In that sense, one of the teams most in need of evolution is Aston Martin. The green team did not start the course as well as its predecessor AMR24with a car that allowed Alonso to be competitive in some classifications, but with excessive wear and poor race pace that complicated things for the Asturian.

The car was created with the goal of progress

Aston Martin said from the beginning of the year that it created its 2024 car with the desire to put an end to one of its main weaknesses from last year: poor evolution. Their goal is to create a good single-seater base from which to be sure to take steps forward as they have brought evolutions to the track, many more new developments throughout the year compared to last year. Since then, Aston Martin presented something new in Japan with a slight redesign of the sides and floor of the car, something that allowed the team to overtake Piastri’s Mercedes and McLaren.

And in China, the rain made an alliance with Alonso so that the Asturian could achieve a better result by maximizing his tools, but in the race the speed worsened again and he finished in 1st 7. There, Alonso warned that it was early and that the car’s worse position was mainly the result of the success of big teams like Ferrari or McLaren rather than Aston Martin’s demerit.

Alonso points to the merits of his rivals

“The base is less competitive, but the car is better, a second and a half if we compare it to 2023, but McLaren is a very strong team, Ferrari and Mercedes too, it seems we are 7th, 8th and 9th, but not because the car is worse but for something else”taught in China.

“In any case, I insist that two years ago the Aston Martin factory was almost a karting factory (now they created a big new one with the highest technology), and sometimes we even fight and overtake Ferrari or Mercedes, so we will see because there are 20 races left, there is a lot of cloth to cut and we will have fun.”.

Confidence in correct data correlation

Then came the second package of Miami updates with lower-load wings and a small change to the rear suspension and rear wing monopillar. And finally, in Miami, Aston Martin chose not to use that low-load rear wing after testing it. In this sense, Aston Martin takes that into account “no simulator problems” and the data and its relationship to what happened on the track and the new parts worked as they should. They just decided to go back to the old rear wing to add aerodynamic grip to the car because of the little ‘grip’ the American track has.

“There are no problems in the simulator. On the (Miami) asphalt there is little grip and a lot of sliding, so we need more load than an improvement in top speed.. “We talked about it for a long time and then made this decision, but if we did it again this weekend we would probably make a different decision, although I don’t think it was a determining factor that we didn’t used the wing,” said the performance boss, Tom McCullough.

First major package of improvements, at Imola

This weekend, the track will be judged. This will be an important Grand Prix for the short-term future of Aston Martin and its project this year. Aston Martin should reduce Red Bull, Ferrari, which will introduce an ambitious package of evolutions, and a McLaren that evolved a lot in Miami. He should also negotiate with Mercedes and stay away from teams like RB (AlphaTauri).

“We have to take a step forward, everyone is taking it and in Imola we have some improvement, hopefully it will make us back close to Mercedes”said Fernando Alonso on ‘DAZN’ after the Miami event, hopefully.

Mercedes suspension

McCullough rejected the idea that the rear suspension they share with Mercedes (they have it because they have to mount their engine and gearbox) is to blame for Aston Martin’s worst performance on Sunday and its biggest breakdown: “We are happy with the suspensions we have. Our problems do not come from that element, but from how we use the tires”. That, at least, is the official version given by the green team’s performance manager.