It’s also a brave investment as there is a proposal to ban wind tunnels from Formula 1 starting in 2030, forcing teams to rely on the ever-improving field of computational fluid dynamics. Stroll is ready to take the risk.
“Nobody knows yet what the future with wind tunnels will look like after 2030, but we believe that it is a worthwhile investment that we have seven or eight years to use it before we make a decision.
“Personally, I don’t think wind tunnels will go away. I don’t think it will be safe for F1 to be designed by CFD only. I think rational minds have come along. But if it’s seven years, we have at least seven years. “
The old factory will be demolished and replaced with a wellness center that will also house cars from previous seasons
After the team has moved into the new main building, the previous factory, which was originally intended to be converted to alternative uses, will be demolished. It will be replaced by a multi-purpose facility that Stroll describes as “a state-of-the-art wellness center, cafeteria, simulator” that will house our historic cars and be able to entertain guests. We will also have a kind of auditorium / congress center in this building. “
Stroll makes it clear that after the completion of the three elements, the new facility with a total area of 400,000 square meters will be the best of all the teams in the current field.
“It will be an inspiring and empowering place to work, design, manufacture and hopefully win.”
It is a bold but perfectly valid claim. The bases of the teams, which we know today as Mercedes and Red Bull, go back to their respective 90s roots as BAR and Stewart, albeit with a few extensions and updates. Even the spectacular McLaren Technology Center in Woking is almost 20 years old.
“It will be the only one that is currently suitable under the financial regulations,” says Stroll. “It will also be the first 5G factory, fully sustainable, it will be a real smart factory in the truest sense of the word. This is really in line with our aggressive and ambitious recruiting drive.
“Here we will have the workforce that we urgently need and need to meet my ambitions for the fight for the World Cup again.
“And it will be an inspiring and empowering place where you can work, design, produce and hopefully win.
“There has never been anything like it before in the automotive industry, regardless of whether it is F1 or other” [area], certainly not in racing. That shows my belief in the team. It confirms my ambitions. And it confirms my belief in Formula 1, because that is really an investment in Formula 1. “
Aston Martin’s new factory is more functional than the McLaren Technology Center
McLaren
You’d think it all sounds a bit like the MTC, which Ron Dennis shaped according to his personality – and which, as is well known, soon outgrown the racing team that houses it. Stroll insists that the Aston base was built for practicality rather than vanity.
“This is the opposite of what Ron Dennis did with Norman Foster at the McLaren Technology Center. This is a factory, a campus, once again serving its purpose to suit the DNA and culture of ourselves, our history, our purpose. That’s what it was built for, to be efficient, to be streamlined, to sit all side by side under one roof again.
“And this taking into account the new financial regulations and also taking into account where we believe the sport will develop in the future.
“So we can build more bays if we want, we can’t shrink by reducing the size of the building, we can move people closer together. But this is a building that really represents our image, our culture and our DNA. “
He insists it won’t just be Aston in name: “It makes us realize that we are Aston Martin now and we will be forever. It conveys the culture and DNA of Aston Martin into this great historical past. It is also architecturally inspired by Aston Martin. The feel, the colors, the smell, the lighting, what you have will reflect our Aston Martin corporate identity. “
“Money speaks very loudly, doesn’t it?” says walk
As previously mentioned, with a random timing, Stroll and his management team were able to align their plans with the budget ceilings imposed by Formula 1 financial regulations.
In other words, they now know what a realistic workforce goal is for the upcoming seasons, they know how those numbers will spread across the different departments, and they’ve been able to tailor the design to that. In contrast, after expanding, Mercedes and Red Bull scale stormily over the years to meet cap requirements.
“The disadvantage is that we are a few years behind because of Covid to build this building,” says Stroll. “It was the intent to have this building in place today. But I really think we’re in better shape than the very big teams that have to downsize, which is demotivating.
The post “New factory will make Aston Martin F1 title contender within 5 years” first appeared on monter-une-startup.
