When Lawrence Stroll bought Aston Martin he had a very specific plan: to bring the British brand among the top teams and fight for the Formula 1 world titles within a certain period of time.
To do this, he also decided to invest massively in the team’s infrastructures, those of Silverstone former Force India and Racing Point, with the specific intention of climbing position after position and achieving his goal.
Among these facilities there is also a new wind tunnel. Although the budget cap forces the teams to use the gallery on a limited basis – therefore with a total number of hours that cannot be overcome, under penalty of financial and sporting penalties – Aston Martin thinks that a new venue in which to model its cars from an aerodynamic point of view is the right thing to do his.
Dan Falles, technical director of Aston Martin, said the new facility will be ready and running to help design the single-seater that will race in Formula 1 in the 2025 season.
“The wind tunnel’s goal is to be operational by mid-2024,” said technical director Dan Fallows. “Hopefully we can contribute at least some of the ’25. I think depending on how the operations of putting the tunnel into operation go, it will probably be the first car to have a significant impact with the new tunnel.”
“As for the factory itself, it will go live next year in stages, so we hope that the previous cars will also see the benefits of the new factory.”
Fallows specified that the team will start using the new wind tunnel not only when it is ready, but also when the right correlation with the track has been found.
“Inevitably, when you build a wind tunnel, you have to go through a commissioning process. And that’s really to determine if the tunnel is delivering the numbers you expect to see.”
“We are fortunate enough to carry out the tests in the Mercedes wind tunnel, which is a very high quality facility, so we need to make sure our new facility delivers results consistent with those.”
“This will take a certain amount of time. but there are things we can do to try to speed up the process. obviously the goal is to get the wind tunnel up and running as soon as possible.”
“As we get better and the availability of wind tunnel time decreases due to Aerodynamic Testing Restrictions, it is clear that we won’t be able to spend as much time in the tunnel, but having your own facility means you can do other experiments as well. Which is invaluable, and it’s something we don’t necessarily have the luxury of being able to do right now by sharing the gallery with another team,” concluded Fallows.
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