Tom McCullough, Aston Martin performance Director, finally conceded to the fact that its rival Formula 1 teams did a splendid job in 2023. It admitted that they lagged behind other teams in the development race of their car.
The team had an outstanding start with its lead driver Fernando Alonso, who managed to be on the podium in Bahrain. He also managed to keep himself on the podium in five out of six initial races.
However, the summer gave them hard time moving around the mixed corner circuits. The Silverstone squad struggled with their car and their driver, Alonso, could only take one out of eight podiums in the preceding races.
The struggles forced the team to leave its place to Mercedes in the constructors’ standing. It confined the team to look over its shoulder to keep its place safe against McLaren uprising.
McCullough admitted the failure to emerge and remain strong on the F1 tracks. The rival teams did great at catching up along the season.
He commented on its rival team’s preparations. McCullough said: “There are definitely some teams at the start of the year who were underperforming, who were taking a step back, we knew that they’d get back on top of that, most notably McLaren and Mercedes.
“At the start of the year, we were a little bit surprised to be the second or third fastest team, but the margins between the second, third and fourth fastest teams were always very small. And we’re always very aware that it doesn’t take much to fall to the back of that pack.
“And then just from a pure development, race, bringing bits to the car, making the car quicker, it was a relative game. Some teams have been doing a stronger job than we have, we have to accept that.
“We obviously hoped to develop stronger than we’ve ended up developing.”
Repeatedly, the team rejected the notion that technical directives, introduced in Singapore, contributed toward its depreciating form.
But the team now fully grasps the issue at hand. Therefore, it will be in much better shape with its 2024 car.
“The TD has had no impact on our performance,” McCullough added. “I don’t think they’re significant. For us, it’s more track characteristics and base development race that we’re sort of fighting with.
“There are certain characteristics of our car that we understood right from the first test and race, the strengths and weaknesses of the car. And we’ve been trying to address those areas that we weren’t as competitive in.
“Our job is to try to make the car quick on all 23 circuits. And we’ve still got plenty of work to do on that.
“Aerodynamically we have a good understanding of how the car’s performing through the ride height and speed ranges. And we know the areas that we want to improve, so that process is ongoing. And we still have a few more bits coming this year to help with that understanding.”
