By Carlo Platella
The arrival of the European season has seen Aston Martin increasingly move away from the top, in contrast to the return to success of Mercedes with whom they were battling for position at the start of the year. At Silverstone the home team ran a mixed configuration, returning to a version of the floor more similar to that of Suzuka, thus giving up the updates introduced in ImolaThe British team is now clear about the problems of the AMR24, preparing to change development direction with the new package expected between Budapest and Spa.
European development
The front wing has been one of the areas of greatest interest for Aston Martin’s technical department. First at Imola and then at Silverstone they made their debut two new spoilerswhose evolution has gone in the same direction. The English team has worked on the nose, remodeling it and coupling it with a new trend of the main wing profile, increasingly curved downwards. In parallel, the upper elements have also changed, such as the two adjustable flaps on which curious lateral V-shaped notches have made their appearance.
In recent months, Aston Martin has therefore attempted to differently set up the structure of the flows coming from the front and going to the rear, also tweaking the fairings of the wishbones and the cooling ducts of the front brakes, updated for the Spanish GP.
Starting from Imola the AMR24 then took a new speakercoupled with a bottom revised in the geometries of the Venturi channels, in the arrangement of the front flow conveyors and in the external edge.
![Aston Martin F1 Fund Updates](https://storage.googleapis.com/fp-media/1/2024/07/analisi-aston-martin-sviluppo-diffusore-990x660.jpg)
As always, the changes that can be appreciated from the outside are only a small part of the changes that have actually been made underneath the car. The most notable innovation at Imola was the removal of the bulge in the chassis at the sides of the cockpit near the inlet section of the Venturi channels, thus sorting and pressurising the flows conveyed above and below the floor differently. At Silverstone, however, Aston Martin has abandoned this solutionusing a mixed bottom between the Suzuka version and the updated Imola one, also with regards to the rise along the edge.
![Aston Martin F1 Updates](https://storage.googleapis.com/fp-media/1/2024/07/analisi-aston-martin-sviluppo-fondo-990x660.jpg)
![Aston Martin F1 Fund Updates](https://storage.googleapis.com/fp-media/1/2024/07/analisi-aston-martin-evoluzione-fondo-990x660.jpg)
The painting
The Imola package has altered the balance of the AMR24, making it more unpredictable and less competitive despite the increase in load. “With the updates we have increased the aerodynamic load, but we are still unable to translate it into gains on the time trial because the balance when cornering is not yet perfect”, Alonso’s commentary during the Monaco weekend. “It’s in the nature of these cars. When you increase the load they become more critical and difficult to drive. […] The loss of performance is relative to the others. I think we increased the performance of the car, but the others seem to have made a bigger step, which is why we lost positions.”
Aston Martin’s only rosy weekend was in Montreal, where both AMR24s finished in the points zone. This was an illusion, however, as the medium-slow, short-course corners of the Canadian track masked the car’s load and balance problems in the long, high-speed corners. “We knew Barcelona would be a difficult weekend”Stroll’s observation after the troubled Spanish weekend. “In Canada we came sixth and seventh, it was a track that suited the characteristics of our car”.
![Stroll in the 2024 Emilia-Romagna GP with Aston Martin](https://storage.googleapis.com/fp-media/1/2024/05/GN8hl-KW0AAn05w-990x660.jpg)
The light at the end of the tunnel
The May updates have worsened the aerodynamic characteristics of the AMR24, accentuating its instability and unpredictability at high speeds. Hence the team’s determination to trace the physical origin of the problem, experimenting a lot on the track to observe the car’s aerodynamic responses to different setup configurations, playing with the ride heights and suspension calibration. The choice made in Emilia Romagna is emblematic, where with Fernando Alonso it was deliberately preferred to violate the parc fermé regime and start from the pit lane in order to experiment with a different setup philosophy. “The focus in Imola was all on finding answers”, Alonso’s story. “When you’re not fighting for the top five, you can use the weekend to test new set-up options, so you can start from scratch the following week.”
The Imola event was not an isolated case, since the team also conducted several experiments in the subsequent stages, giving up preparation for individual weekends and immediate results to gain a better understanding of the phenomena at play. “Now we have a very clear idea”Alonso’s response at Silverstone. “Until Barcelona we were probably… I wouldn’t say confused, but we were doing a lot of testing. From a few races onwards, however, things are clearer.”
![Fernando Alonso during FP2 of the 2024 Canadian GP](https://storage.googleapis.com/fp-media/1/2024/06/alonso-canada-pista-bagnata-990x662.jpg)
The return to the old package at Silverstone benefited the performance of the AMR24s, with both cars returning to the points. More importantly, Aston Martin is now confident it can build on a more solid foundation for future development. “We took the wrong direction of development and it didn’t go well”Stroll’s admission. “We know how to get out of it […]. We’ve experimented a lot and done a lot of testing on all the updates that we’ve brought to the track over the last 12 months. I think we’ve learned a lot. Now it’s just a matter of taking action and fixing the problem.”
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