Aston Martin get development boost after ‘working tirelessly’ on Dutch GP upgrades
Aston Martin technical director Dan Fallows has confirmed the team will be bringing upgrades to their car this weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix, having been “working tirelessly” to understand why their performance has dropped off in relation to others.
Aston Martin began the season with a flying start, Fernando Alonso being consistently ‘best of the rest’ behind the two Red Bull drivers and getting in among the fight at the front in a remarkable turnaround in fortunes compared to last year.
But developments brought by their rivals have seen the Silverstone-based team caught up and overtaken in the pecking order of late, with Aston Martin looking to bounce back after the summer break.
Aston Martin bringing Dutch GP upgrades to fight back after summer break
The nature of the upgrades will be revealed when the FIA’s ‘show and tell’ document is released at Zandvoort, which details each of the team’s planned updates for the weekend, but technical director Fallows confirmed Aston Martin will be bringing new parts to the AMR23 to the Dutch circuit.
A poor weather forecast for Friday may make things trickier for the teams however, with dry running preferred to gather data on any new parts put on the cars.
But given the amount of work that has gone into the new parts at the team’s newly-opened factory at Silverstone, Fallows hopes to see them have the right impact for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll this weekend.
“Rain during Free Practice will make our job harder, as we will have to make a call on whether our upgrades work based on less running,” Fallows said ahead of the weekend.
PlanetF1.com recommends
The F1 records held by Max Verstappen…and ones he can still break in 2023
Revealed: 10 crazy F1 records that will never be broken again
“我们想要尽可能多的圈自己运行e in the rain, we have to weigh up the risk of running in inclement weather with the return that we’ll get in data.
“We want to minimise the chance of damaging parts and if we believe the chance of an incident is too high, we’ll elect to keep our drivers in the garage.
“We’ve been working tirelessly to develop our understanding of the AMR23. We believe we now have a good understanding of the car’s weaknesses and we’re taking steps to address them.
“We hope that the performance of the car at Zandvoort, with our latest updates, will confirm we are heading in the right direction and help Lance and Fernando fight for points this weekend.”
Read next:Will the party continue for Max Verstappen’s ‘Orange Army’ at the Dutch Grand Prix?
