Aston Martin technical chief Dan Fallows says the team are aiming for the 2025 car to be the first fully designed in their new Formula 1 factory. Owner Lawrence Stroll is investing in new facilities, including a new wind tunnel and factory at the team's Silverstone base in an attempt to make them World Championship contenders over the coming years. The team have also recruited personnel from rival squads, including Fallows from Red Bull to head up the technical department, with the likes of ex-McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh also coming aboard in a senior management role. With Fernando Alonso being signed to partner Lance Stroll in 2023, the British outfit will be looking to build on the momentum of late 2022 to close the gap to the front of the midfield in the coming season. But, despite all the investment, Fallows believes the team must wait until near the end of the current rules cycle before the project will be complete.
Aston Martin reveal targets for projects
2022 was a mixed season for Aston Martin, with the AMR22 suffering in the early season with the wrong car concept, before a late rally from the team had them nearly pip Alfa Romeo to sixth in the Constructors' Championship. Both teams finished on 55 points, but Alfa Romeo were placed ahead on countback thanks to Valtteri Bottas' fifth place at Imola being the best result either team managed. While Fallows and team boss Mike Krack are hopeful of a step forward with the AMR23, the former says the new wind tunnel will not be fully online until the middle of next summer. "I think the target for the wind tunnel is to be online in the middle of 2024," Fallows told media, including RacingNews365.com , during a recent tour of the facilities. "We are hoping that that will have at least some contribution for the 2025 car and, depending on how the commissioning of that goes, that will probably be the first car to have a significant impact. "In terms of the factory itself, that's obviously coming online [in 2023] in various stages, so obviously the cars will feel the benefit of that as well." Despite the investment into the new facilities, Fallows also believes that the bigger prize for the team is in analytics and not machine power. "It's [not] necessarily more machines, but one of the things about the factory is that we have the ability when everything is on-site to be much more detailed in terms of the analytics," he added. "[We can improve our] detailing of the production process and actually analyse in a way that allows us to improve much more than if you're using external people. That's probably the key difference."
Good for cost cap
When the cost cap findings were released in autumn 2022 for the 2021 season, Aston were found to have committed a procedural breach and did not stray over the $145 million limit imposed, unlike Red Bull. In having the new factory, Fallows is optimistic that it will prove beneficial for the team in streamlining development efforts. "Efficiency covers pretty much all of it, really," he explained when asked what the big gains were from the factory in terms of producing new parts. "One of the things that marks out a competitive team is its ability to turn things around quickly – to go from design to reality in the shortest possible time. "There are greats leaps forward in efficiency with that type of facility and, obviously, under a cost cap world, anything you can do which maximises the efficiency of the cost is worth doing."
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