In the round-up: Lance Stroll admits Aston Martin’s development programme hasn’t gone to plan since their strong start to last season.
In brief
Aston Martin took “wrong direction” – Stroll
Aston Martin scored 68 points over the first half of this year – little more than a third of what they managed over the first 12 rounds of last season. “We were there beginning of last year,” Stroll told media including RaceFans last weekend. “I don’t think we were totally there, we were not in position to win races last year, but we had a quick car and some podiums and a lot of top fives and stuff.”
The team began to slip backwards in the second half of last year and have fallen behind the top four teams into the midfield. “I think ultimately we took a bit of a wrong direction in terms of development philosophy,” said Stroll. “We went down the wrong path and we’ve slowly been realising that more and more. 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.”
The team enjoyed a better results at Silverstone when Stroll and team mate Fernando Alonso finished seventh and eighth respectively. Stroll believes they are now beginning to understand where they went wrong.
“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.”
Norris, Bearman and Sargeant test at Silverstone
Pirelli was able to complete some dry-weather running in the second and final day of its tyre test at Silverstone, where three F1 teams ran cars. McLaren’s Lando Norris, Haas reserve driver Oliver Bearman and Williams’ Logan Sargeant covered a total of 273 laps, using the two wet weather specifications in the morning before finally getting to run the slick tyres Pirelli hoped to evaluate in the afternoon.“Unfortunately, bad weather meant we were unable to complete the programme we had planned for the slicks, focusing specifically on assessing compounds for use on very severe tracks like Silverstone,” said Pirelli’s motorsport director Mario Isola. Bearman set the pace with a 1’29.481, Norris lapped in 1’30.987 and Sargeant’s best was a 1’32.161.
Mercedes knew of Russell’s fault early on
Mercedes identified the developing point which put George Russell out of the British Grand Prix early on in the race, the team’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin confirmed. Russell started the race from pole position but lost the lead before being called in to retire.
“Unfortunately we knew that we had an issue relatively early in the race, so we were tracking this from the first stint,” said Shovlin in a video released by the team. “We didn’t know that it was going to be terminal, but it’s all linked to a leak that was in the water system that was causing the pressure to start to drift, and ultimately when we stopped the car, it was to protect the power unit.
“We knew that we were never going to finish the race. What you don’t want to do is finish the race and destroy the power unit, then you’ll be looking at a penalty possibly later in the year. So it was preventative, but there was no way that we were going to get to the chequered flag.”
Ferrari introduce first upgrades for 499P
Ferrari has brought the first upgrade for its 499P hypercar ahead of this weekend’s Six Hours of Interlagos, part of which is intended to address the difficulties they have experienced with brake cooling.
“We modified the underbody, adjusted the heights of some ‘gurney flaps’, and introduced a ‘flick’ under the front headlights,” explained head of endurance race cars Ferdinando Cannizzo. “The upgrade has allowed us to maintain the 499P’s position within the ‘performance window’ specified by the technical regulations.
“We don’t expect improvements in lap times, but greater versatility and easier adaptation of the car on circuits where braking performance is more demanding and decisive.”
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'The London EPrix, the final two rounds of the FIA Formula E world championship, will be broadcast on the (British) free-to-air TV channel Quest.'
‘Bridgerton’ star Simone Ashley joins F1 starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris (Variety)
'Details of Ashley’s role are being kept under wraps.'
Festival coming to downtown for Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
'The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a $1 million sponsorship of the festival. The event is being coordinated with the Formula 1 race to persuade fans in town for the event to visit downtown Las Vegas, which reported that it didn’t see a major economic bump from last year’s race.'
Full race - 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans (WEC via YouTube)
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Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:
It is me who should be apologising to Sir Brian May, not him to me for the gridwalk on Sunday at Silverstone. I didn’t address him as Sir Brian, and I shouldn’t have approached him twice when he wasn’t up for a chat on live TV. Nobody is ever obliged to talk to me on the grid, or…
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Comment of the day
Excellent stat-spotting from Abovo on last weekend’s grand prix:
It was the first time that one nation secured the first three spots in qualifying since the 1997 French Grand Prix, when Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Ralf Schumacher did the same.
Abovo
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Dougy_D, Joaqo, Pabs1, Tomd11 and Pawel!
On this day in motorsport
- 60 years ago today Brands Hatch held the British Grand Prix for the first time. Jim Clark won.
ppzzus (@ppzzus)
11th July 2024, 4:59
This is yat happens when you copy designs but don’t know how they work
PacificPR (@streydt)
11th July 2024, 7:28
I hope for AM’s sake it’s a bit more complex than that..
Todfod (@todfod)
13th July 2024, 12:41
The only time Aston have been competitive is at the start of last season, when they copied Red bulls 2022 challenger. The only other time that the same team was competitive, was in 2020 (under the guise of racing point)… when they raced a Pink Mercedes.
Aston martin is a midfield team with a strong copycat game.. but obviously they’ll not know how to develop the car with a competitors philosophy the don’t have access to.
SteveP
11th July 2024, 8:00
You could also suggest that RBR problems with their upgrades are due to the remaining team members not fully understanding how the base design works.
That thought is based on the same amount of fact.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
11th July 2024, 8:06
I was thinking the same. They have previous. The old “Pink Mercedes” started out good, but faded as the year progressed.
ruth222
11th July 2024, 17:41
How did it “fade out”?
Scoring a single podium in the first half of 2020 while scoring 3 (including a win) in the second half.
They scored more points in the second half of the season as well, despite Stroll having way more issues.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th July 2024, 1:00
I’m guessing in terms of competitiveness, they ended up losing out 3rd to mclaren on the constructor’s championship, while early on I don’t remember that well, but I think they were the 3rd strongest team.
SteveP
12th July 2024, 13:22
Team 8 points first race
Team 14 points second race
Total after two races = -1
Came fourth to McLaren 3rd with a difference of 7 points.
If they had fitted the Mercedes design brake ducts for one race in 2019 they would have been “grandfathered” for use in a modified form in 2020.
Performance wise, they did better than McLaren and lost out to them on a regulations’ technicality.
If you look at the spread of the higher points scoring races, it’s more toward the end. So, not a fade, more a case of Renault kicking their starting blocks.
I bet “Alpine” now wish that high-tech copying was still allowed.
slowmo (@slowmo)
11th July 2024, 10:19
Yeah this was pretty much my thoughts on the situation. They copied others concepts, got lucky when it just worked out of the box and then never understood why it worked so well.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
11th July 2024, 8:10
The Martin Brundle comment is a weird back track to his usual moaning when American celebrities refuse to talk to him on the grid and he gets all “if you’re here, you should be willing to talk”.
I’d argue that as Brian May would be waving the checkered flag, he should be up for interviews as he’s been invited specifically for a major role, not just a generic celeb / team free ticket.
It shows double standards from Brundle.
Ludewig
11th July 2024, 8:26
He’s well known for his double standards when it’s UK drivers versus other drivers, so this is par for the course, with him.
notagrumpyfan
11th July 2024, 9:21
To me all non-working souls on the grid should be a potential target for an impromptu interview, as long as the question is F1 related.
It’s a circus, then please let us laugh about the expected F1 ignorance of many of those walking around there.
Of course Brian May was probably on a formal mission there; somebody had to show him what an F1 car looks like if he was supposed to wave the checkered flag later on ;)
SteveP
11th July 2024, 9:59
This would be the astrophysicist Sir Brian May that sort of became famous due to a hobby that grew out of proportion?
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
11th July 2024, 11:54
Lmao best description ever
slowmo (@slowmo)
11th July 2024, 10:23
I’m of the mind personally that everyone on the grid should be fair game to be approached unless there is a no contact protocol in place for vulnerable people or children. When the FIA issue passes they should colour code them to advise who the press cannot approach if requested by the personnel. These people are being given a huge privilege that many of the most avid fans of the sport will never have so they should be giving a bit back to the sport in terms of exposure where appropriate.
SteveP
12th July 2024, 8:22
Reading the apology from Sir Brian, it appears his main reason for being there was accompanying his grandson on an extra-special birthday treat in the Mercedes garage.
He didn’t want to talk about something he has little/no knowledge of:
“All you see is someone who is nervous of speaking about something of which he has little understanding and anxious to get to where he is supposed to be.”
How many other celebs pretend they know more than which end is the front (determined in their minds by the steering wheel placement)
Plus, for anyone who has seen interviews, he’s actually fairly shy, so an interview, on live TV, where he is out of his sphere of knowledge…
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
13th July 2024, 6:29
I’m not ignoring Sir Brians reasons, but like most of you, it seems a small price to pay for the priveledge of being there (and no less so for the ability to provide a day out for your grandson the likes of most of us will never experience).
But yes, I sgree they should be forewarned. And if they are not up for it, stay off the grid.
Asd
11th July 2024, 8:24
I’m quite convinced it would do teams like Aston Martin good, if the seriously considered the sunk cost fallacy, and sometimes made the smart decision to go back to their previous year’s car and developed it further instead of investing in their current – failed – car, which they are not able to improve.
There was recently the case, which wasn’t unique at all, where a team’s new car (was it Alfa Romeo in 2023 vs. 2022?) was consistently slower than their previous year’s car and they couldn’t move pass that. And that is just nonsensical.
Asd
11th July 2024, 8:31
Oh, now I remember, it was the 2023 Alpine being slower than the 2022 Alpine!
slowmo (@slowmo)
11th July 2024, 10:28
I think the issue there is that the previous years car was going backwards all year too so they probably identified limitations that needed fixing with this years car. I’ve not looked at the figures but I would guess the issue for AM predominately is they’ve largely stood still from last years car while the top 4 took a step forward. Obviously historically the Mclaren MP4/18 story is the most obvious tale of abandoning development of a new car to continue with your previous years car.
Asd
11th July 2024, 11:56
We also have the fresh stories of Mercedes and Williams abandoning their no-sidepod designs mid season last year.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
11th July 2024, 12:09
Is it that simple?
With such complexity, you are probably never really able to just “go back”.
It can eventually move forward towards a design similar to the previous one, but you probably have to redo a lot.
If anything, should there be an “easy fix” they would already have done it.
It’s probably also related to their new facilities and tool calibration, it all takes time.
Leroy (@g-funk)
11th July 2024, 13:32
I’m trying to find the motivation for Lance’s comments in light of their push to hire Newey. Throwing the existing aero department under the bus with those comments could either tell Newey that his services are severely needed or it could tell him he would be leading a team of people who just want to copy designs and fail to understand what makes a car quick.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
12th July 2024, 1:07
Thinking about it, both ferrari and aston are having a pretty bad mid season, perhaps sandbagging to try and make newey think “if I can get this team back to winning ways, that would be a monumental task”!