Aston Martin is gearing up for what sounds like a pretty tough winter, and there’s talk that heads might roll if they can’t bounce back with the AMR24. Remember when everyone was buzzing about Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso earlier this season? They snagged six podiums in the first eight races, including a cool streak of three right out of the gate. Good times, right?
Well, things took a turn. Aston Martin, led by the ex-Red Bull guy Dan Fallows and cruising in a car that had a strong family resemblance to the RB19, was riding high at P2 in the Constructors’ Championship. But then the decline kicked in, and they started losing ground to Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren, who were making serious gains with their updates.
Now, here’s the kicker – Aston Martin admitted they took a wrong turn. Eric Blandin, the deputy technical director, spilled the beans, saying, “We were led in a certain direction by our simulation tools on the aerodynamic side, and we did follow a path that was just the wrong one.”
They tried to fix things up with a snazzy update at the United States Grand Prix, but from the outside, it’s not looking like there’s been much progress. The last two races saw neither driver breaking into the top ten in qualifying, and Lance Stroll’s P7 in the US was the only bright spot, with both drivers pulling a double DNF in Mexico.
On the On Track GP podcast, Richard Bradley, who knows a thing or two after winning Le Mans in LMP2 back in 2015, dropped a reality check. He’s saying Aston Martin is in for a serious, serious winter, and if they don’t get their act together, there might be some folks packing up their desks and grabbing a P45.
