Mike Krack and Tom McCullough say that Aston Martin understood a lot in F1 2023 with various experiments which were even aggressive at times.
It was a year of hardwork for Aston Martin in F1 2023. They started off well but their performance dipped as they started to bring in updates. It was an aggressive push as they sought to understand the car better for the future seasons.
Fernando Alonso termed the 2023 car as the base Aston Martin machine, one which will be a platform for the future cars. And so, the team did bring in string of updates – some of which worked and some where they eventually got it right.
One thing that they learned was not to bring something at sprint weekends. After a likely disaster in Austin, they will be careful the next time. “We knew it was aggressive bringing some of the test parts we brought to Austin, which was a Sprint event, we then unfortunately operationally had some problems with brake temperatures and we didn’t get the most out of that session,” said Aston Martin performance director McCullough.
“That put us on the back foot with quite a different characteristic car to understand, which is why we ended up obviously starting from pitlane and doing some big changes. Was it a bit too aggressive bringing those parts to a Sprint event? We discussed a lot about doing that – and if we had a clean free practice one I think we would have said that was the best thing ever to do but we didn’t.
“So we take that learning into next year with understanding what the sprints are, setting your updates. The learning we went through as a team, both to understand how to get most out of this year’s car, more crucially to get the data we need for next year’s development has been very valuable to us,” summed up McCullough.
There were lot of statements flying around its Montreal update. But McCullough clarifies that it was blown out of proportion in the media. “The actual car lives in a very different world to the wind-tunnel and CFD,” he said. “We went down some development routes and we’re always trying to make the car go quicker, you’re always trading plus and minuses as you’re bringing packages knowing what we know.
“A few of the small decisions we made, now, we’d probably make them differently, but I also think a lot of this grew and was a much bigger story than the reality. When we sit back and look at what actually happened, and talk to the senior aerodynamicists, they’re a bit surprised by the story, because I think it ended up being a much bigger story than the reality.”
Aston Martin team principal Krack, meanwhile, recognised that the team were in harsher development fight since they were not battling the midfield but the top end teams. That made their job a bit harder as they are still in that transition phase.
But overall, Krack was pleased with how their season went with no negatives per se. “After two or three races we were fighting in a completely different league of teams that are used to development races much more,” he said. “At the top there is a much harsher development race going on, so we knew that this was going to be a hard fight.
“And we confirmed that it was hard. It is probably easier to do this development when you are running in the midfield than when you’re running more at the front. But it was maximum positive. I think if we look back we have eight podiums, we have had 280 points. We would struggle to find any negatives if we zoom out and look at our season.
“I don’t see any negatives. If you look at our…you have to zoom out for that, you cannot go race-by-race. I think Fernando mentioned it once, we should not call it like football where every race you are judged on your path. When you do a summary of the season you cannot do that,” summed up Krack.
At the same time, McCullough added: “We were just saying that when you come to an event, you always read the reports and analysis from this time last year. If you look at the game we were playing then compared to the points we had then and the relative competitiveness of the car, to the game we are playing now, it just reminds you how much we’ve moved on.”
Here’s F1 2023 teams’ tier order: https://formularapida.net/f1-2023-teams-categorised-in-tier-system-for-their-performances/
Here’s F1 2023 drivers’ tier order: https://formularapida.net/f1-2023-drivers-categorised-in-tier-system-for-their-performances/
Here’s Fernando Alonso on Lance Stroll partnership
Here’s Fernando Alonso on in-season developments
Here’s Fernando Alonso on fighting Mercedes, Ferrari
Here’s Fernando Alonso on best 2023 races and deserved win that didn’t come
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