F1 | Aston: effectiveness in qualifying comes from a more efficient DRS

At the start of the season, five teams dominated the scene in the top 10, namely Red Bull, followed by Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Aston Martin, with the latter four in the role of chasers. For now, the team that has performed best in this group of four teams is Ferrari, with a more balanced SF-24 than its competitors, but in the first two rounds there was no shortage of surprises and insights.

In a certain sense, the Cavallino team has taken over the role that twelve months ago belonged to Aston Martin, that is, the reference role behind Red Bull. In fact, although it wasn't as incisive in qualifying as this season's Red, last year the AMR23 often placed itself as the second force in the race thanks to excellent tire management, acting as a “level” on the opponents' performances in the first third Seasonal.

An element that emerged more in the race than in qualifying, where the single-seater from last championship showed some more difficulty in extracting the most from the tyres. Curiously, however, twelve months later the trend was reversed and the AMR24 proved to be more effective on the flying lap than on the long distance, so much so that even Fernando Alonso underlined how Aston Martin must start working concretely to improve the race pace.

The comparison between qualification and race

“Historically, as a team, we have always tended to be stronger in the race, while qualifying is a little more difficult. The characteristics of this car are very different for us from an aerodynamic point of view. We are learning to make the most of it,” said Tom McCullough, one of the key technical figures of the Silverstone team, addressing the issue of the performance gap between qualifying and the race.

“Obviously after Bahrain we analyzed the data and if we raced there again we would worry less about where we qualified, which is why in Jeddah we concentrated on long runs and were a bit surprised to see both cars in Q3,” added the engineer.

At Aston they are still not sure why the AMR24 is so effective in qualifying, while in the race it is not able to express itself at the same levels, paying a few more difficulties. Among the possible explanations suggested by the team there is also the great work done behind the scenes to improve the use of the DRS, the advantages of which clearly emerge especially with empty tanks in the search for time.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“Obviously, things like the effectiveness of the DRS are central in terms of effectiveness in qualifying, especially here in Saudi Arabia. We checked the difference [del DRS] between last year's qualifying and this year's, with almost identical wind direction and speed. And the difference on the DRS is notable. We gained a lot of lap time. Generally speaking, the car behaves exactly as our development tools say, but it's a relative game: we want to continue to improve the car and get closer to the top of the grid,” explained McCullough.

“The efficiency of the car and the DRS effect are aspects we worked very hard on last year, we saw how strong Red Bull was. It was a goal of ours. And again, this is one of the reasons we were strong in qualifying. We have a very strong DRS effect. There are three DRS zones here, which means a lot of lap time gained.”

More effective DRS: an extra weapon on the flying lap

Precisely on the subject of DRS, however, there are some considerations to be explored further. In the first part of last year, Aston Martin had a tendency to run with very loaded wings, so much so that it had a rather large gap from its rivals in terms of top speed. The engineers were well aware that this was an area that needed work to try to make a difference. Only in Baku, in the fourth race of 2023, did a new, flatter rear wing debut, which however did not completely solve the problems.

Telemetry comparison between Alonso's qualifying laps in 2023 and 2024

Photo by: Gianluca D'Alessandro

Examining the data from the first two events of the season, a clear step forward in terms of top speed compared to the previous world championship emerges. This is also due to the fact that the AMR24 can afford more unloaded configurations than the AMR23, which guarantees a benefit in terms of drag, i.e. resistance to progress. More than in Bahrain, this element is evident above all in Saudi Arabia, finding some more interpretations.

If the data from the first DRS zone of the last attempt of 2024 are partially altered by a slipstream, cleverly exploited by Alonso by keeping behind another car at the start of the lap, going for the first run of Q3, a difference still emerges considerable, of 7 km/h at the end of the straight. A delta that also recurs in the other two sections where it is possible to exploit the effect of the mobile wing, i.e. the extensions that lead to curve 22 and curve 27: in both cases, there is a gap between 2023 and 2024 of around 5-6 km/h in favor of the AMR24, with a gain on the stopwatch of around 2 tenths for each of the two straights.

An undoubtedly important delta, however also due to differences in terms of aerodynamic configuration. As anticipated, at the beginning of last season Aston Martin tended to run with rather full wings and only in the rest of the championship did alternative solutions arrive. The Jeddah track requires a more streamlined package than Bahrain and, in order not to influence the budget cap too much, the Aston Martin engineers simply limited themselves to cutting part of the DRS flap, leaving the rest of the wing unchanged: although this left the mainplane rather loaded, this approach limited the range and effectiveness of the mobile wing.

On the contrary, this year the Silverstone team presented itself with a wing that was overall more streamlined and suited to the needs of the Saudi track, without cutting the profile of the DRS. These two aspects contributed to improving the maximum speeds on the sprints, but another positive element is that, despite the slightly lighter wing, the speeds in the fastest corners of the first sector remained competitive, even compared to other teams, the which confirms that Aston has been able to increase the load from the floor and the car body.

The race, however, the problem was almost the opposite to last year and this emerges clearly in the comparison with McLaren. The Woking team paid for their problems in terms of efficiency and exploitation of the DRS in qualifying, only gaining the fifth row. When this aspect disappeared over the long distance, the loading qualities of the MCL38 emerged, with an immediately more competitive pace, while the Aston Martin struggled to get the tires up to temperature with both drivers, especially the harder one. It is no coincidence that Alonso was overtaken with some ease by Oscar Piastri in the early stages of the race.

According to McCullough, this improvement in terms of the effectiveness of the mobile wing follows a process already started last year and is linked to multiple factors: “When you open the DRS you have to deal with the flap load, the mainplane load , the interaction with the beam wing and the bottom, the interaction with the entire body, the shape of the bonnet, cooling losses and other aspects”.

“So hats off to Red Bull. Last year they were very strong. Many have looked at this and tried to find a solution to reduce drag with DRS, which we were able to do by introducing some of these updates last year. The wing used here [a Jeddah] it's not very different from the ones we introduced towards the end of last season, but with the improvements in terms of interaction between the bottom, the rest of the cooling system and the openings to vent the hot air, the result is a DRS effect bigger”.