Aston Martin Chairman Lawrence Stroll has outlined “continued progress” as the team’s aim for 2024 as it continues to build on its bid to compete for Formula 1 titles.
After successive placings of seventh since morphing into Aston Martin in 2021, the Silverstone-based squad rose to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship last season.
Aston Martin had capitalised on optimising the downwash solution pioneered by Red Bull to emerge as the reigning champion’s closest contender through the early stages.
But having logged six podiums in the first eight races, Aston Martin’s form nosedived due to troubles with upgrades and it was then overhauled in the development race.
Nevertheless, Aston Martin registered a season-best of eight top-three finishes across its various guises and accumulated 255 points more than the previous season.
However, with aspirations of challenging for championships in the future, Stroll has declared that he expects the team to go “even better” in the upcoming campaign.
“We’d like to go up from fifth to fourth, third – whatever it may be,” Stroll said amid the launch of Aston Martin’s AMR24. “But [the target is] just to continue progression.”
Stroll, who took over the entity in mid-2018, is enthused by the team’s prospects after transitioning into its new state-of-the-art headquarters in the middle of last year.
The Canadian also highlighted Aston Martin’s switch from being a Mercedes customer to being a factory partner with Honda from 2026 as vital to its intentions.
“We’re a young team. We just moved into a new facility. Our wind tunnel, which will be ready in September of this year – we’re the last team to be running without their own wind tunnel,” he pointed out.
“In 2026, we get Honda power units. So we’re on a journey to win. But every year, it’s about progression.”
Aston Martin Technical Director Dan Fallows explained that the AMR24 has been constructed with the aim of avoiding the development slump it encountered in 2023.
And the ex-Red Bull engineer, who worked alongside Adrian Newey, asserts that Aston Martin has adopted the internal mindset that the Austrian outfit can be usurped this year.
“We’re really into finding lap time now from things that are smaller details, the more kind of detailed elements of the floor and other parts of the car,” he told selected media including Motorsport Week.
“But there’s still a lot of lap time to come. And we take the approach that Red Bull are absolutely beatable, that’s what we’re chasing after we’re focusing on them, and that’s what we’re aiming for.
He added: “We talk about Red Bull, because obviously they are the benchmark in terms of performance. But really, for us, whoever’s the fastest car, that is the focus for us and that’s what we’re looking at.
“I think rather than thinking about individual races, from an engineering point of view, we have to make a car that’s capable of operating at any circuit and being competitive.
“And that’s really what we’re focused on, is making a car that’s usable, that’s good for the drivers and that’s what we’ve really been trying to focus on.
“Those sort of competitive stats, and how we get close to Red Bull will come after that. If we put that performance on the car, then then we give ourselves the ability to compete at that level, which is exactly what we want.”
