Aston Martin is braced for the intervention of the Sprint format to limit its understanding of the upgrades it is bringing to this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.
After claiming six podiums in the first eight races, Aston Martin has lost out in the development race and only added one top-three finish across the past nine rounds.
Having been competing with Mercedes and Ferrari for second place in the Constructors’ Championship, Aston Martin is now under increasing pressure from McLaren, who have since become regular podium scorers.
McLaren scored more points last time out in Qatar (47) than the Silverstone-based squad has managed to accumulate across the previous six rounds combined (46).
With McLaren now only 11 points behind, Aston Martin Technical Director Dan Fallows has confirmed the side will be boosted by the addition of further upgrades in Austin.
However, with only one practice hour ahead of qualifying, Fallows is cautious of the impact the updates will have on the overall competitiveness of its AMR23 charger.
“We have some updates coming into the weekend, and we’re quite interested to see how they work,” Fallows explained.
“In some ways, it’s a shame that it’s Sprint weekend because we’d like to have more time to dial in those updates and see how the cars will perform.
“It will be a big challenge to gain that understanding as early as possible. We’re looking forward to seeing how these upgrades perform and, hopefully, it’s a track where we should be reasonably competitive if we can get everything right.
“We’ve obviously been disappointed with the way it’s panned out in recent races, but this experience has enabled us to learn some valuable lessons which we’re trying to take into next year.”
Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack conceded earlier this year that previous upgrades had been responsible for its regression in the pecking order.
Fallows has echoed Krack’s comments, insisting that its mid-season slump has provided “valuable lessons” that the team is striving to rectify with next season’s car.
“We did have a very good start to the season, and we’ve obviously been disappointed with the way it’s panned out in recent races, but this experience has enabled us to learn some valuable lessons which we’re trying to take into next year – we can see where we went wrong in terms of upsetting the car balance,” he added.
“We’ve understood why that’s hurt our overall performance. Now, it’s a question of making sure that we don’t make the same mistakes again; it’s certainly been a year of learning.”
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