Aston Martin’s Upgrades Bring New Balance Challenges to AMR24

Aston Martin has been open about the challenges its recent upgrades have brought to its Formula 1 car, the AMR24, making it more “difficult” to drive. The team has introduced a host of developments aimed at boosting its performance and closing the gap with the front-runners, but drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have found the car to be a more troublesome beast to extract speed from on the limit.

The competitive Formula 1 field is expected to be closely matched, and any factor that hinders the drivers’ ability to perform at the edge is a significant concern. Until now, the team has been tight-lipped about the specific weaknesses it faces, with Alonso refusing to disclose details ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

“No, of course not. If not, I will give all the information to everyone. So, we keep it for ourselves. These cars are, when you put more and more downforce, they became a little bit more critical in some situations.”

However, his teammate Lance Stroll has provided more insight into the dynamics at play, citing balance issues as the primary challenge facing the Aston Martin car. Unlike Mercedes, which struggles with performance across a range of corner speeds, Aston Martin’s problems stem from the car’s transition through turns. Particularly, the AMR24’s mid-corner understeer trait is its biggest weakness, which is exposed in Barcelona’s long corners.

“It’s a balance thing for sure, but it’s not really a confidence thing. It’s just that the car is limiting in terms of balance. It’s not a hard car to drive in the sense of putting laps together. It’s just we have limitations, with entry and stability, a lot of mid-corner understeer and things like that, which we can’t get around.”

Performance director Tom McCullough has acknowledged that getting cars sorted for tracks with longer corners is a significant challenge.

“A short corner is easier to set a car up for, a longer corner is harder. So getting a through corner balance in a long corner is always more challenging, and that’s something which everybody’s working on. We’ve been working on it from Bahrain onwards.”

The team is aware of the necessary improvements and is focused on bringing updates to address the issues. McCullough added, “There’s always balance characteristics you want to improve, and we’ve been focusing on that and bringing bits all the time to help that. So we’re slowly chipping away at that. At the same time, we’re trying to add base performance to the car as well, and both aerodynamic and mechanical development bits.”

While Aston Martin is working on a solution, it is under no illusions that there is a quick fix. Upgrades aimed at improving the situation are still a few races away, with Stroll stating, “I think we gathered a lot of information over those [last few] races and now it’s just kind of attacking the problem. We have updates coming not this week, not next week, but in the coming weekends, as quickly as possible really. So it’s really just about attacking the issue more than understanding it.”

The team’s focus on addressing its Formula 1 performance and balance issues will be crucial in its quest to climb the ranks and showcase its Formula 1 car’s full potential.

🔗 Source