Working around new floor rule “was actually quite fun” for Aston Martin

In brief

Fallows had “fun” adapting Aston Martin’s 2023 car to floor rule change

One of Formula 1’s technical rule changes for 2023 is raising the minimum height of cars’ floor edges by 15mm, a move to reduce the porpoising that impacted many teams last season, and it has presented a design challenge for engineers as the greater space around and beneath the car’s floor reduces downforce.

Aston Martin’s technical director Dan Fallows talked about the rule at the launch of his team’s new AMR23 car, and revealed his technical team was enthused by the extra challenge from the regulation change.

“I think it was the right thing to do to try to make a change to the regulations to help out this bouncing,” he said.

“We all know that the teams are tending to want to run the car right up to the limit. So by regulation, allowing some some degree of freedom in there makes an awful lot of sense. It did hurt in terms of the downforce of the car but we went into the development saying ‘well, we wanted to get round that as quickly as possible’, and then to develop further. So that was a big thing for us.”

Aston Martin have already shaken down the AMR23 at Silverstone, and reserve driver Felipe Drugovich will be first to drive the car in official testing due to race driver Lance Stroll being injured. Only then will the team get a true understanding of how successful they have been with their work around the floor edges.

“Interestingly, any time you touch anything particularly that sensitive on the car, it has other effects on the floor and the aerodynamics around the rear of the carin particular,” Fallows added.

“And actually that was quite a fun challenge to try to see how we could sort of take that disadvantage, if you like, and turn it into an advantage. So it was actually quite fun to work with that fact. Any rule changes are usually very good fun.”

McLaren enquires with Red Bull and Honda about their F1 engines

The team is one of Mercedes’ three engine customers. However the manufacturer indicated last year it intends to reduce the number of customer teams it supplies in future.

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said the team is “very happy with Mercedes” at present but he and team principal Andrea Stella are considering their options for the future.

“We’re not in a big rush and we are very happy with Mercedes so we’ll see how things play out over the next year or so before we need to make a decision,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans.

Indy Nxt to support NASCAR at Indianapolis

IndyCar’s primary support series Indy Nxt has tweaked its calendar to move its first race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway from May to August.

The May event had been a double-header, so will still include one Indy Nxt race on the track’s road course, and the new date for the race brings it onto NASCAR’s ‘Brickyard Weekend’.

Between the 11th and 13th of August, IndyCar, Indy Nxt, the top-level NASCAR Cup Series and its supporting NASCAR Xfinity Series will now all be in action at IMS.

“To feature Indy Nxt during this elite NASCAR-IndyCar weekend is a tremendous opportunity,” said Indy Nxt’s series director Levi Jones.

“This season, 19 Indy Nxt entries will compete for the 2023 championship – the most since 2009. It is a growing series matching the growing IndyCar paddock and a phenomenal moment to showcase the next generation of stars on a huge stage.”

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

Sebastian Ogaard first to sign up for Eurocup-3 with MP Motorsport (MP Motorsport)

'Danish youngster Sebastian Ogaard is the first driver to hook up with MP Motorsport for an assault on the inaugural Eurocup-3 series. The Dutch outfit is one of the teams providing cars for this new stepping stone in between Formula 4 and FIA Formula 3.'

PMH Powering Diversity scholarship expands to assist five female racers in 2023 (US F4)

'Parella Motorsports Holdings is excited to announce five female racers as recipients of this year’s PMH Powering Diversity Scholarship. Launched in 2021 as a way to create a more diverse field of drivers at the grassroots level, the program expands in 2023. This year’s PMH Powering Diversity class includes two women racing in F4 US: Hannah Greenemeier and Ava Dobson.'

Italian Braschi steps up to Eurocup-3 with Campos Racing (Campos Racing)

'Campos is pleased to announce Francesco Braschi will join its driver line-up for the upcoming 2023 Eurocup-3 season. Last year, Braschi made his debut in the Formula Regional Asian Championship and the FRegional European series. Eurocup-3 will be another step forward for Braschi competing on some of the best Iberian and European racing circuits.'

talkSPORT and Formula E launch only dedicated weekly motorsport show on UK national radio (NewsUK)

'‘On Track’ is a new one-hour show airing from 4pm to 5pm on talkSPORT 2 every Tuesday, launching Tuesday 21st February. The show will be available to download as a podcast after broadcast as part of the talkSPORT podcast network.'

'With Michael, Mick would have a good F1 seat today' (Bild)

''He was in the wrong team. Red Bull would have been better for him. There they would have cared more for him and built him up,' said Ecclestone.'

Ignite partnership announces £500k to three new funded partners (Mercedes F1)

'Ignite is supporting three new organisations, Gender Action, Bradford College and the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers, to create more opportunities for young people from underserved communities to progress into STEM careers and motorsport.

Ignite, launched by Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes F1 team, was founded to improve diversity in STEM and motorsport.'

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Jumping onboard with Lewis for his first laps behind the wheel of W14 at Silverstone 🤩🖤 pic.twitter.com/HSGPaEI5GT

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) February 22, 2023

new #IndyCar album just dropped

the Andretti Autosport EP includes all your favourite tracks (Sweet St. Pete, Laguna Seca, IMS, Toronto wildin', Mid-O-high-o school sweetheart) with features from Devlin Francesco, Romain Grosjean, Colton Herta and Kyle Kirkwood

📸: @IndyCar pic.twitter.com/T1wHB6LxkN

— Ida (@wood_ida_) February 22, 2023

⚽️ @MarcusRashford 🤝 @LewisHamilton 🏎 pic.twitter.com/XmRFf798Go

— Premier League (@premierleague) February 22, 2023

🚨News🚨
Going back to race this weekend the @s5000au in Tasmania.
Very looking forward to race again in Australia together with the @grmotorsport family
Lets try to achieve a strong result together💪 pic.twitter.com/LVtSP6Q4aO

— Roberto Merhi (@robertomerhi) February 22, 2023

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Comment of the day

Lewis Hamilton is hoping his Mercedes car will return him to the front of F1 this year, and fans want to see the team fight 2022 dominator Red Bull too.

I hope Mercedes is fast for all sorts of reasons. First to add more spice to the overall championship. It’s clear there is a ton of bad blood between Red Bull and Merc and they love to beat one another. Ferrari and Red Bull just lacked that extra spice last year. At least during the beginning of the season when it was a close championship. But I also want Merc to be fast so we can see a real battle between Lewis and George. Last year they were clearly limited by the car. I hope this year we see some sparks between them as they fight for intra-team dominance.

The other thing I note from the article is the old cliche “you don’t forget how to win.” If you don’t know why you were winning in the first place, then there is nothing to forget. So teams can undoubtedly go from hero to zero very quickly if they don’t understand what led to their success. I am not saying that is the case with Merc, but it is foolish to equate past success with future success, especially when a significant component of that success has been altered through a major change in regulations.
Leroy

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Bt52B!

On this day in motorsport

• Born today in 1953: Satoru Nakajima