Having set out to try to compete for the Top 4 of the Formula 1 World Constructors’ Championship, Aston Martin instead found itself relegated to fifth place with 44 points, 35 points behind Mercedes, which was also struggling in fourth place.
Behind her, however, her rivals are not standing idly by. Racing Bulls, which started very badly, is the protagonist of an interesting recovery over the course of the last few races which has brought it up to sixth place with 20 points, therefore 24 points behind the Silverstone team.
The British team showed up at Imola with important updates, a series of innovations that are part of a development defined as aggressive by Dan Fallows, the technical director. The V-shaped front wing on the movable flap is a part of this.
Yet Aston Martin’s weekend was anything but productive. The AMR24s proved difficult to drive, especially in the hands of Fernando Alonso. Lance Stroll brought home 2 points, but he also underlined that what he has brought so far is not enough to compete with what his direct rivals are doing.
“In Imola, when you start from where we started, everything is very difficult,” said Mike Krack, team principal of Aston Martin Racing. “We go home with 2 points, and I think it’s a good result overall. This shows how our car is capable of achieving results.”
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“But we also saw that it’s difficult to ride. We had a couple of off-track excursions over the course of the weekend. The first one was the one that had the biggest impact on our weekend, because from then on we were really at a disadvantage.” .
“We started from the pit lane in the race because we wanted to learn more. So we made a change to the car to see if we could make it easier to drive. We certainly wanted to do better than we did. But it was all a compromise linked to what happened in qualification”.
The situation Aston Martin finds itself in is difficult, but it worries the team’s leaders up to a certain point. In fact, it seems that the package of innovations that will arrive in the next races will give more confidence, but data, simulations and hopes are one thing, it is another to have the hoped-for feedback shown by the track.
“We’re not satisfied with the amount of points we scored in Imola, that’s clear. But others are also making improvements to their respective cars, so it’s always a relative game.”
“We must not underestimate these aspects. I think all the teams have a long list of updates, so this shows how competitive the whole grid is. We need to keep pushing and bringing more new things,” concluded Krack.
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