Aston Martin is one of the mysteries of this championship. Lawrence Stroll’s team is unable to express all the potential that the AMR24 seems to have in its belly. The Silverstone team is in full transformation phase with the brand new factory that will come into operation in time to give birth to the 2026 single-seater with the official Honda power unit and Aramco’s e-fuel. Objective: aim for the world championship with the adoption of agile cars.
Lawrence Stroll is strengthening the technical structures and the human staff: next week the arrival of Adrian Newey will be made official, who will join Enrico Cardile, former Ferrari chassis technical director.
To better understand Aston Martin’s interim season, we involved Luca Furbatto, the 52-year-old Piedmontese who is the director of engineering. The Italian divides his time between the new factory (there are 150 people involved in the development of the ultra-modern structure with various innovative solutions) and the care of the F1 single-seaters.
Luca, in the exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, gave an overview of the state of the art of Aston Martin, then opened his eyes to a future that will be very interesting…
“We are fifth in the championship. We have lost the train a bit from the top four teams for a few races now. We have struggled a bit with the development of the car during the season. If we then consider that the whole grid fits in one second, it is easy to understand that we are talking about values of a few tenths. In Monza with a minimal difference we could have been seventh instead of eleventh”.
Luca Furbatto, Engineering Director of Aston Martin, with Fernando Alonso
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Will Aston Martin focus on 2025 or continue with development this season?
“We will continue with the developments until the end of the season with the intention of closing the gap with the top four teams, at least in terms of performance.”
But everyone’s talking about balance issues?
“It’s a problem for us, but listening to the team radio I have the feeling that it’s a fairly generalized thing. There’s the difficulty of these cars in turning in the corner entry phase. Let’s say that the aerodynamic platform helps to find the load on the rear, to the detriment of the front during the various phases of the corner and, therefore, you can go from a neutral car on the entry that becomes understeering before the apex and then becomes very oversteering on the exit. This transition, which in the past was never so extreme, is becoming increasingly clear because these cars are reaching very high load values”.
If we give the value 100 to the load at the beginning of 2022 when the ground effect cars were launched, what figure has been reached today?
“Well, I think we can talk about a value of 140-145 over the course of two and a half seasons.”
Is this a value that will continue to grow in 2025, even if we have reached the last year of this technical regulation?
“I think so, and it will be interesting to see what peaks we will reach at the end of the 2025 season, particularly for tracks like Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps.”
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Is it conceivable that in the pursuit of balance one could give up some aerodynamic load points in the wind tunnel?
“Yes, it is possible and, especially when you bring developments, when the balance doesn’t change or even gets worse, there is always the possibility of going back to previous packages to see if perhaps the driveability can improve on certain circuits. It is something we have seen on several cars and not only on ours, since it has also affected Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes. It is very complex to develop these cars”.
Once upon a time it was perhaps easier to find the balance because the engineers worked on the wings, while on ground effect cars it is the bottom that determines 60% of the load, so the value of the appendages has become less important…
“With the previous regulations the load was divided approximately one third to the front wing, one third to the floor and finally one third to the rear wing, so the appendages had more relevance in modifying the balance, compared to today’s cars which generate up to 70% of the downforce with the floor. The ability to intervene on the front wing to find a balance has effectively halved. But this is an effect of the regulations of the current ground effect cars”.
Red Bull RB20: Ballast added to the front wing at Monza at the end of FP3
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Red Bull went as far as moving the ballast to the front wing at the end of FP3 in Monza. This is a change that is not usually made so soon before qualifying. Is this an example of a team that was dominating the field and is now seriously in trouble?
“Well, in Monza this year we saw the front left tyre behave differently than we expected, with graining appearing due to the new asphalt. So I think the change should be read in that direction. It seems that they needed to move some weight to the front axle”.
The example certifies how complex it is to find the balance…
“Yes, because it is a phenomenon that also varies depending on how the tyre temperatures evolve during a run. In addition to having a change in the behaviour of the car when the aerodynamic forces that make the bottom of the car rise and fall change, it also matters how the grip of the tyres varies. It is no coincidence that in Monza we saw the preparation of the out lap very different during qualifying. You try to bring the tyres to certain temperatures in an attempt to mask those balance problems that in qualifying can be more serious than what you see in the race”.
For 2025, single-seaters are expected to be the product of the evolution of this year’s, to dedicate more budget to the 2026 cars that can be studied from 1 January 2025, even if there are teams like Ferrari, Red Bull and Racing Bulls and others have already made it known that they will aim for a new project…
“Well, it could be. It’s a choice that every team can make. We haven’t said which path we’ll take, but given the financial regulation and the big changes for 2026, I’d be a little surprised if everyone was aiming to make a completely new car.”
“Of course, it cannot be said that the 2025 car will be identical to the 2024 one, but I expect many teams to maintain common mechanical components that will not encourage revolutions: I am referring to the chassis, power unit and gearbox, while the changes will certainly concern the aerodynamic design. Then perhaps I will be disavowed by teams that will switch from push rod suspensions to pull rod. They are free to do so…”.
Luca Furbatto, Engineering Director of Aston Martin
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
This seems to be the case with Ferrari modifying the red for Lewis Hamilton. Another topic that has come back into the news this summer was the return of porpoising: did it surprise you?
“No, because in the end it will be a battle that we will continue to fight. You reduce the bouncing a bit because you get the flows in the bottom right and then it becomes natural to try to bring an update that increases the load a bit, and the porpoising returns. The more you push this regulation, the more there is the risk of seeing single-seaters bouncing. It will be a phenomenon that we will have to deal with until the end of 2025 and I think it is one of the reasons why we will take another path in 2026. After all, the drivers, even if they do not say it publicly, complain about the porpoising and several complain of back pain, so I think this is an element of the regulation that needs to be addressed”.
There is a lot of talk about the tools that increase the performance value of the cars. At the moment it seems that McLaren has the most advanced wind tunnel and benefits from it. Is this a correct view? And to see Aston Martin grow like the Woking team, do we have to wait for your very modern wind tunnel, which is being completed at Silverstone, to come into operation?
“McLaren had built its tunnel starting in 1999, when I was there, then that structure was used, as far as I can remember, until 2008, because the team had subsequently moved to the Toyota plant in Cologne. A couple of years ago, McLaren had the opportunity to completely overhaul its tunnel in Woking, applying more modern and innovative technologies compared to other wind tunnels that are now twenty years old. It is therefore reasonable that the modernization of the tunnel can produce results on the track”.
Zak Brown, Lando Norris and Andrea Stella in McLaren’s new wind tunnel
Photo by: McLaren
Are we talking about a wider moving carpet to analyze the flow even in yaw or innovative materials that facilitate the rolling of the model by reducing friction and tire wear, to lower the bottom towards the floor and find more load?
“It could be, but I would also include a significant amount of sensors in the wind tunnel that would allow us to measure the aerodynamic flows more precisely.”
What does it mean?
“For example, today it is possible to scan the flows in different areas of the car: it is something more modern than the tools such as simple scales that were used years ago. The addition of sensors allows us to verify the quality of the flows in many parts of the car”.
In the wind tunnel we hear about yaw, with the model being hit by the air with the wheels turned, but is it worth thinking about investigations regarding roll?
“All the F1 team gallery models run with yaw, roll and dive: I think it’s something that’s been acquired for many years. Then how much work is done and what weight is given to each of these attitudes can change from team to team”.
And in what direction is wind tunnel research going?
“I have the idea that McLaren has figured out the key to being able to turn very low with the bottom and with very little aerodynamic oscillation. If we look at the on-board cameras we can see that the driver’s helmet is very stable.”
Aston Martin AMR24: the front wing
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Will the tests the FIA carried out to monitor the movements of the front wings at Spa-Francorchamps lead to any regulatory changes next year?
“I don’t think there is an intention to change the 2025 regulation, because the fact that the wing deforms within the rules is part of that attempt to find a balance of the cars. I feel like saying that it is a necessary evil of ground effect single-seaters, otherwise with more rigid wings we would find ourselves with drivers incapable of finding a useful set-up to make the car controllable”.
In anticipation of 2026, the FIA is planning meetings to evaluate what regulatory changes can be decided, taking into account that the sporting regulations are still partially to be written…
“There are several working groups: we are collaborating with the FIA to decide on rules that are good for the sport”.
But what could change? After hearing about agile, highly efficient cars, an increase in aerodynamic load is not ruled out…
“The most important key is to understand what we want to do with the movable wings and the override, or push to pass. Until we understand these technical aspects, talking about more downforce or more efficiency will mean relatively little. The override, thanks to the power variation on the straight beyond certain speeds, could have a strong impact on the cooling system; therefore, we are not talking about a minor detail in the definition of a new F1. Since the car must enter the tunnel from January 1, the regulation will have to be deliberated by November. There will be an FIA World Council in December and on that occasion the rules will have to be ratified”.
The regulation match, therefore, is still all to be played…
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