F1 | Stroll: “I know how to grow, with the AMR24 I hope for many podiums”

A new season begins for Aston Martin and for Lance Stroll, now in his sixth year with the Silverstone team. Time passes, but the objectives always remain the same, that is, to continue to grow in the hope of continuing the growth path and getting closer to the top.

It is an ambitious Aston Martin that has unveiled the AMR24, which does not present itself as a revolution of the previous car, but rather as an evolution but with particularly interesting technical ideas. The central area of the single-seater has been revised, especially with regards to the radiator intakes, while the rear suspension becomes a push rod adopting the Mercedes rear axle.

Having the honor and burden of bringing the AMR24 to its debut will be Stroll, who today will take to the track for the first time with the new single-seater at Silverstone during a 200 kilometer filming day. There is a climate of confidence within the British team, with the optimism of having understood how to climb back to the top after a difficult second half of the season in 2023.

Aston Martin AMR24

Photo by: Aston Martin

“I'm very excited about the 2024 car. I think we're trying to build on last year's car. Last season we had a strong car, with which we faced the first part of the championship”, the Canadian told the press, including Motorsport.com.

2023 was a fundamental year, not only for the achievement of some important goals, but also because it allowed the limits of the single-seater to be exposed, giving an extra element to the engineers to understand how to continue the growth path. If at the beginning of the championship the AMR23 had proven to be a car with great aerodynamic load and very kind on the tyres, capable of beating the competition from Ferrari and Mercedes, as the season continued the limitations of the project became increasingly evident, starting from the low top speed.

The British company's engineers tried to intervene during development, but followed the wrong direction which negatively affected performance. Only towards the end of the championship, after understanding the mistakes made, was the British team able to recover and recover and this is an element on which Stroll wanted to focus his attention with a view to 2024.

“There were some weak points in the car, on some circuits. Some of these weaknesses were exposed and we struggled a lot more as a team. This year, therefore, the whole team has worked very, very hard to continue to build on what we learned last year, improving some weak points and also continuing on the strengths of last year's car. I'm definitely excited for the start of the world championship, but also for the entire season to come. The championship is long and we want to do well and grow from the first to the last race, making the car stronger and stronger throughout the year,” added Stroll.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Aston Martin Racing

However, 2023 represents a starting point and an opportunity to improve not only for the team, but also for the Canadian driver himself. Over the course of the past season, Stroll suffered significantly from the path chosen by the team in terms of updates, because they made the car more difficult to drive, so the hope is that the AMR24 can return to being as easy and manageable as it was. at the beginning the AMR23. Although the simulator can offer a first opportunity to become familiar with the new car, Stroll wants to wait until he can go on track in Bahrain to give a broader and more concrete image of the car's potential.

“The simulator is the simulator, but [la vettura] it is an evolution compared to last year. I'll know more when I drive it in Bahrain. I think these things are always difficult to understand before the season starts. I believe that a lot of the work is done in the winter tests, to understand what the settings are, what the best sensations and performances are. So, I will go to Bahrain and see how our car performs. We will make some adjustments and fine-tune it during testing.”

On a personal level, Stroll believes he knows which aspects to improve in order to take a step forward in terms of performance and does not hide his ambitions, including permanently entering the points, but also fighting for podiums and the first victory in his career: “As I approach This season I've learned a lot, I evolve, I think about what I can do better, how I can be better. Every year is a very different year. In F1 it depends a lot on the position of the car. It depends on many factors. But I would like us to fight for some big results this year, getting a lot of points, fighting for podiums and a win in green would be nice. So, the first win in green would be nice.”

Aston Martin AMR24

Photo by: Aston Martin

For an ambitious team with the medium-long term prospect of fighting for the title, it is clear that the objective is to be able to close the gap to Red Bull, a far from simple undertaking given the advantage seen in 2023. However , Stroll doesn't want to bite off more than he can chew because he knows that the team still has to grow: there are many ideas on how to reach this target and continue to get closer to the top.

“Red Bull has dominated the sport for the last two years, since the new regulations were introduced. And Max too [Verstappen] He is driving exceptionally well. He's in top form. So it's definitely a challenge. I don't think our goal is to beat Red Bull. We want to get there, but our goal is to be the strongest team possible. And we have a lot of ideas, a lot of things in the pipeline to become a much stronger team. And that's what we're focused on.”

Before arriving at Red Bull, in fact, there are other opponents to beat, such as McLaren, which in 2023 was able to overtake Aston Martin despite competing in the lower part of the rankings at the beginning of the season. At the end of the championship the AMR23 was unable to keep up with the MCL60 and the challenge will reopen with the arrival of the new season: “It depends on what McLaren did during the winter. So it's very difficult to make predictions, but I hope to recover the 3 tenths and find another three,” added the Canadian.