Aston Martin’s F1 Regression Attributed to Misguided Development Path
Dakar Rally News, December 2024 – In a recent interview, Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll has attributed the team’s regression in Formula 1 over the last 12 months to an incorrect direction taken in their development efforts. Aston Martin had emerged as Red Bull’s closest challenger in the opening rounds of the 2023 season, capitalizing on several teams being held back by ill-conceived car philosophies.
However, as Ferrari, McLaren, and Mercedes sustained improvements with mid-season concept changes, Aston Martin soon found themselves slipping down the championship order. This trend has continued into the 2024 season, with the Silverstone-based squad unable to register a race result higher than fifth across the first 12 rounds and scoring 115 points less than at the same stage last year.
Stroll explained that Aston Martin had ventured down the wrong path with their development, and are now working to correct their course while their rivals have continued to progress. “We went down the wrong path and we’ve slowly been realising that more and more,” the Canadian driver said. “Now it’s a matter of changing path and then giving it time to develop and get good again by going down that different path.”
Despite the challenges, Stroll remains optimistic that Aston Martin will use these harsh lessons to come back stronger in the future. “We’ve done a lot of exploring and a lot of aero testing over the last 12 months,” he said. “Every upgrade we’ve brought, we haven’t seen the benefit that we were hoping to see over the last year. I think we’ve learned a lot and now we’re really just trying to execute, fix the problem and make the car a lot faster.”
Stroll’s comments come after a challenging Silverstone race, where he managed to finish seventh despite the tricky mixed conditions. “When it starts raining at such a high-speed track like this, the mixed conditions are so tough because you’ve got to really keep your foot in it, believe and commit to the corners,” he said. “It was definitely one of the more intense races, it was a bit like Canada earlier in the year.”
As Aston Martin looks to bounce back from their recent setbacks, the team will be hoping to apply the lessons learned over the past 12 months and regain their position as a top contender in the Dakar Rally standings.
🔗 Source