Last weekend in Miami was a headache for Aston Martin. They started with an accident in the sprint race, which left Fernando Alonso without points. Then in the main race they struggled more with the middle part of the pack like Alpine or Hass than with the drivers at the front, a clear sign that things are not going well.
The track around Hard Rock Stadium turned out naughtier than everyone thought. Compared to other times, it had less grip and with the great heat, controlling the soft tires was practically impossible. Tom McCullough, Aston Martin’s head of performance, said the key was managing tire temperatures, because finding the ideal setting was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Mike Krack, the British team boss, mentioned that track position was crucial on a circuit where the tires barely wear out and everyone is stuck with DRS. Although Alonso had a difficult time in qualifying, in the race he managed to climb a little, but the initial strategy they had planned did not go as they wanted and the entry of the Safety Car was more of a patch than a solution.
For the next race in Imola, the first in Europe, Aston Martin is going all out, hoping not to lose any more ground to teams like Mercedes and separate themselves from those coming behind, as reported by the Formu1a portal. one. “The European season will start in Italy, so I think all the teams will bring some new things,” commented Krack.
Although they have been tinkering with the car with various new features, and will continue to do so, it seems that Aston Martin is lagging behind the most powerful teams, but that does not mean that the arrangements do not work, as the team has mentioned.
Basically, the green team is satisfied with what has been shown so far, leaving aside what happened in Miami. There, as McCullough confirmed, they decided not to use the new low-downforce wing after testing it because it simply did not suit the track conditions, opting for more downforce rather than top speed. “We discussed it for a long time and then made this decision, but if we were to do it again this weekend we would probably make a different decision, although I don’t think it was a deciding factor that we didn’t use the wing,” McCullough explained.
Furthermore, although there has been a lot of speculation about Mercedes’ suspension and its impact on the AMR24’s performance, Aston Martin also defends this configuration: McCullough was clear in denying that this is the source of its problems. “Our problems do not come from that element, but from how we use the tires,” said the engineer.