Aston Martin Performance Director Tom McCullough has warned Red Bull is "overall a very strong car" as rival teams aim to find weaknesses in the RB19. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez completed a clean sweep of race wins to start the new F1 season, with Aston Martin emerging as the surprise nearest challengers in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia before Lewis Hamilton finished second for Mercedes in Australia. The RB19's ability to breeze past competitors in a straight line has left rivals baffled at the efficiency of the car's aerodynamic profile, hailed as a defining factor in Red Bull's early-season dominance.
No weaknesses?
Asked where Red Bull particularly held the upper hand over Aston Martin, McCullough dismissed potential flaws in cornering speeds compared to straight-line pace. "[Red Bull's] car is, from an efficiency side of things, very strong," McCullough told media, including RacingNews365.com. "Even without the DRS, it's very strong in the straight line, but it's very strong in the corners too. "So it's not as if it's going a lot slower than the corners, so the car is, just overall, a very strong car. "It's DRS, which seems pretty strong as well. [Australia] has one of the highest sensitivities to DRS in qualifying - four DRS straights per a relatively short lap. So it's very powerful to have a strong DRS [at Albert Park]. "Their car is just strong in the corners and very strong in the straights."
A developmental waiting game
Asked what Aston Martin's targets were for developmental gains in response to Red Bull's stellar start to the season, McCullough added: "Lap time, relative to the Red Bull. "They're slightly quicker in the corners and definitely faster on the straights at the moment, especially the DRS switch as well. "Those are the areas but I do think we need to go to a few different tracks; these are atypical tracks, these first three."
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