F1 | Aston: New facilities almost ready, will give more flexibility

The first part of the season was not exactly exciting for Aston Martin, with performances often too inconsistent. After a start to the championship that had seen it stable as the fifth force, its rivals were able to recover thanks to targeted innovations, while the updates brought by the Silverstone team did not always give the hoped-for progress, so much so as to push the team to go back in certain events.

Further updates are planned for the second half of the championship to try to breathe new life into the AMR24, which will also form the basis of next year’s project, before shifting focus entirely to the 2025 single-seater. However, the team’s attention is not only on what is in the development plans for the car, but also on what revolves around the new facilities that will complete the Aston Martin campus at Silverstone.

The first phase was completed last year, with the creation of the new factory that houses all the engineers, while by the end of this world championship the other two factories should also be completed. In particular, the two buildings that will house the new simulator and the new wind tunnel have already been created, two elements defined as essential for the development of the team. In fact, over the last few years the British team has hired numerous important technicians from rival teams, including Enrico Cardile, former technical director of Ferrari, but to aspire to become a top team that aims for the title, the true dream of owner Lawrence Stroll, structures are also needed.

For this reason, the Canadian owner has decided to invest in a new structure that will allow the team to design and produce components directly within the campus, without having to rely on external services in any way. For example, Aston engineers currently use the Brackley wind tunnel owned by Mercedes: even if it is not excessively distant from the Silverstone base, it is clear that depending on others significantly complicates development opportunities, given that shifts must be agreed upon and all the elements to be tested must also be organised in advance.

With the new wind tunnel, however, which will be built in the third plant in Silverstone currently under construction, there will be a path that will allow the team to significantly speed up all procedures. First of all, in the third plant not only will the wind tunnel be built, but also the composites department that will develop in several sectors, starting from the “raw” materials up to the modeling of the various projects that will have to be tested. In this way, the wind tunnel and the various specialized departments will be directly connected, ensuring greater operational flexibility.

Likewise, the new simulator will also guarantee a step forward compared to the current one. In recent years, teams have invested significantly, especially before the introduction of the budget cap, to purchase new technologies in step with the times. Many teams, for example, have invested in new simulators, such as Ferrari and Sauber, given that the basic structures were now more than a few years old. A path also followed by Aston Martin, which has decided to also guarantee itself a new simulator that allows for much more accurate detections, especially at the hardware level, considering that this type of detection requires high-frequency inputs and responses to understand, for example, the reactions based on the roughness of the asphalt.

Rendering of the new Aston Martin factory in Silverstone

Photo by: Aston Martin Racing

Precisely for this reason, Aston Martin believes that these two elements could be essential in the growth path, which will above all represent the basis of the 2026 single-seater, that of the new technical cycle, although in reality they will also contribute to the development of next year’s car.

“The new simulator we have is obviously a state-of-the-art simulator, which will be brought into operation later in the year, as will the wind tunnel. Both are massive improvements for us and allow us to do a lot more testing in the way we want to,” explained Dan Fallows, Aston Martin’s technical director.

“These new tools will give us much more flexibility than we have at the moment. There have been many things that we would have liked to do but have not been able to do because of these limitations. There is a reason why we are spending millions and millions of pounds on these new tools.

“For a team with our aspirations, it is really important to give ourselves the right tools to be able to move to the next stage. So yes, we are excited and we do not see everything being ready. The 2026 car will be designed entirely in the new wind tunnel starting from the beginning of next year. [dato che vi è una regola che impone lo sviluppo delle nuove monoposto solo a partire dal 1° gennaio 2025]”.