The 2023 Formula 1 summer break is in full swing, presenting the opportunity to take stock of how each side’s season has unfolded ahead of the season’s resumption.
Aston Martin shot out the starting blocks as the surprise second-best outfit as it continues to revolutionise itself as a front-running team in 2023.
When Fernando Alonso lit the touch paper that set the 2022 Silly Season firing away in earnest by announcing he would replace Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin for this season, countless people scoffed at his decision-making.
Here was another disastrous move by the Spaniard in his hopeless search to fight at the sharp end of F1 once again it was widely suggested.
However, the seeds were being sewn by billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll to turn the Silverstone squad into contenders. The Canadian had invested in a state-of-the-art new factory that came online this year and he has been busy on an intense recruitment drive on either side of that vast investment.
Former Red Bull Head of Aerodynamics Dan Fallows was hired as Technical Director, and former Mercedes Chief Aerodynamicist Eric Blandin and ex-Alfa Romeo Chief Designer Luca Furbatto were brought in to work alongside him.
The net result was a remarkable turnaround in Aston Martin’s fortunes. Seventh in the 2022 Constructors’ Championship, Team Silverstone arrived in Bahrain as the second fastest team, reminiscent of a 2004 BAR to the Ferrari-like 2000s dominance now being demonstrated by Red Bull.
To back up Aston Martin’s promise of pace, a rejuvenated and seemingly ageless Fernando Alonso put on a string of podium performances.
Third in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Miami, second in Monaco, before a brief lull in form in Spain where he finished seventh was capped up with another runner-up spot in Montreal for Alonso and Aston Martin well and truly established them as a new entry in F1’s elite.
But since that second-place showing in Montreal, Aston Martin has slipped back into the clutches of Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, and has yet to return to the podium.
Alonso’s best return since Canada is a pair of fifth places in Austria and Belgium, with teammate Lance Stroll being off his more experienced teammate’s pace all year.
Whilst Alonso was chasing podiums with great success, Stroll was combatting the effects of injuries sustained in a pre-season cycling accident and since recovery has failed to extract the ultimate pace from the AMR23. Stroll’s best result has been fourth in Australia, netting a points total of 47 – some way short of Alonso’s tally of 149.
It has been said that various upgrades to the AMR23 have upset the balance of the green machine, hence incurring a slump in the team’s performance.
Despite Stroll’s struggles and Aston Martin’s advantage over the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren dwindling in recent weeks, the team sits third in the Constructors’ standings, a feat that would have seemed inconceivable based on its competitiveness only last season.
Team Principal Mike Krack has admitted the team’s slump “came much quicker than we wanted“, but it is now working “crazy hours” to return to the performances it was enjoying at the start of the season.
Whatever the outcome for Aston Martin throughout the rest of 2023, the season has been nothing short of a roaring success.
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