Aston Martin debuts a very substantial aerodynamic package at Montreal. Maybe it’s because the Canadian GP is father Lawrence Stroll’s home race, maybe it’s because the Silverstone team was able to exploit 960 tunnel hours in the first six months against Red Bull’s 605 and Ferrari’s 720, the fact is that the “verdona” changed face on the circuit dedicated to Gilles Villeneuve to return to being the first challenger of the world champion team.
The AMR23 represents a big change compared to the car that raced the first seven races of the season: there is a clear search for aerodynamic efficiency in an attempt not to lose the qualities that led Aston Martin to be one of the best F1s in the slow and driven, but in the hope of improving in the fast sections.
Technical director Dan Fallows, assisted by Luca Furbatto and aerodynamic chief, Eric Blandin, did a chisel job which, if it bears fruit, will bring the Silverstone car closer to the RB19 which, so far, has proved to be unbeatable.
Aston Martin AMR23, detail of the new side
Photo by: George Piola
Aston Martin has followed Red Bull in the idea of limiting the “losses” with the hot air vents which are collected in the first part of the enlarged bazooka, at the root of the engine hood, and which then show a greater range in tail, with a narrow and long opening (Haas style) on the dorsal of the vertical stem, since the fin has been greatly reduced.
For everything else, the Silverstone staff followed their own concepts and took them to extremes: the belly is very interesting because the excavation above the radiator vents has become narrower and has almost halved in width, however increasing the depth of the “tub”, while in the external portion of the side the wall of the Grand Canyon seems to have grown, essential so that the turbulence of the front wheel does not dirty the efficiency of the road surface and the sidewalk.
In this area of the car we can find some similarities with Diego Tondi, head of aerodynamics at Maranello: the SF-23 Evo has removed the gills for the evacuation of heat from the excavation, but kept the tub closed at the top also towards the tail, while on the Aston Martin we observe that the Coanda effect was bet on in the hope of pushing more flow towards the pavement, so much so that the side has a slide behind with an almost straight trend, whereas before it was more arched.
Aston Martin AMR23, detail of the bottom
Photo by: George Piola
A great job has also been done at the root of the belly which is now much more excavated under the radiator vents: thanks to a careful rationalization of the accessories contained in the bodywork, it has been possible to create a sort of channel that runs along the entire stem of the side to the sidewalk and vents the air on a portion of the ramp of the diffuser which is no longer covered due to the evident slimming of the bodywork.
The bottom is completely new: the external “bargeboard” has been redesigned and the floor in the central part does not go as far as the maximum width allowed by the regulation because there is a narrowing near the bottom which swells due to the presence of a sort of “lung” useful to control the onset of porpoising.
The Silverstone engineers paid close attention to the design of the underbody so that the increase in downforce is not due to the annoying aerodynamic pumping that particularly affected Ferrari in Barcelona. The AMR23 has reduced drag and the hope is to see speeds more suited to the long Canadian straights on the Montreal track…
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