Following the monumental change in the F1 regulations it was clear that Red bull Racing understood the new ground effect principals better than the other teams. This is hardly surprising due to the fact that Adrian Newey is the only individual in the sport who has direct knowledge of the cars that ran between 1978-1982 when the Venturi ducts delivering ground effect downforce were previously allowed in Formula One.
However, Aston Martin may be a dark horse for the 2023 due to the acquisition of Red Bull Racing’s technical officer Dan Fallows.
Aston Martin F1 £200m new factory
The Silverstone based team has huge ambitions and these were reflected in the signing of Sebastian Vettel the year the team rebranded from racing point. With Vettel retiring the ambitious recruitment of F1world champions continued as Lawrence Stroll bagged the unhappy at Alpine Fernando Alonso for 2023.
After years of operating on a shoestring budget as Force India and then Racing Point its all change for the Silverstone based team. In March 2021 team owner Lawrence Stroll outlined a five year plan for Aston Martin to be challenging for titles.
A huge part of this was a new £200m state of the art facility in Silverstone with a footprint of some 37,000 square meters which should be functioning early this year.
F1 racing team moves in this spring
There are three phases to the build. The first opening May 23 is the main center for the racing team. It will be where the car is designed and built and the center for all F1 racing operations.
The second phase coming Q3 in 2024 will be the new wind tunnel and only Aston Martin and McLaren – who are also building a new wind tunnel – will have such modern technology as the other teams wind tunnels are at least ten years old.
The final part of the Aston Martin build will be an events space and employee experience area.
Yet this is just part of the Stroll plan to get the team to the front of the F1 grid. Engineering talent has arrived from a number of other teams around the grid and not just their ‘cast offs’ released due to the new budget cap financial restraints.
Ex Red Bull designer brings “Newey Knowledge”
During his time at Milton Keynes Dan Fallows has been part of multiple title winning car designs and worked closely with Adrian Newey considered to be the best F1 car designer currently in the sport. Fallows too would have been integral in delivering the 2022 Red Bull Racing RB18 which swept all before it.
This 2023 Aston Martin will be the first that Fallows has been involved in from start to finish and the team have high hopes his Red Bull gained knowledge will project them higher than the 7th they finished win the 2022 constructors’ championship.
When asked at a recent media event what makes Red Bull Racing so dominant, Fallows replied “There are a number of reasons why Red Bull are good.
Why Red Bull Racing are so successful
“Over a period of years, they’ve managed to iron out issues in every aspect of the team, whether that be the race team, the manufacturing facilities, the design office.
“A lot of building that weakness is making sure that there are no areas where you have substantiales.
“In many ways, I’m very proud that I was part of that on the engineering side. They’re an incredibly strong team.
“I do have experience of what it means to win races and win championships.
“The key message is that you just have to make sure that with every aspect of what you’re doing there are no holes, there are no things which you’re doing that can be compromised or can compromise your performance as you go along. ”
Aston Martin F1 needs more “clarity of purpose”
Fallows reveals he has been impressed with the Aston Martin set up since joining but noted: All that’s been not quite there is a unified clarity of purpose – and that’s what I hope to help bring. It’s all about having an eye on what you’re trying to achieve on the racetrack, right from the outset of designing the car.”
TJ13 reported extensively during the winter break last year there were a number of personnel problems within the organization at Aston Martin. This was vindicated because the team failed to deliver their full objectives for the car which arrived in Bahrain.
Aston Martin only managed to introduce its B-Spec car at the 2022 F1 Spanish GP weekend. Needless to say, the upgraded AMR22’s uncanny resemblance to RB18 turned many heads in the paddock. It also was the root cause of a number of ‘copying’ allegations from angry members of the paddock.
2023 F1 challenger may look even more like a Red Bull F1 car
Having only joined the team in the Spring of 2022, Fallows will have had little impact on the early design of the Silverstone designed challenger. Though for this year his knowledge of the Red Bull designed solutions will almost certainly make a difference to the AMR23.
That said, the car should go well and be challenging for a top four finish in the constructors’ championship, no doubt the recruitment of Fernando Alonso will be hailed as the biggest effect in reviving the Silverstone based team’s fortunes.
READ MORE: Wolff conflicting messages over the W14
2023, let’s go!@alo_oficial pic.twitter.com/9I72VbKHOw
— Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) January 2, 2023
