Lewis Hamilton asserts that Aston Martin’s slump midway through the 2023 Formula 1 season showcases why Mercedes can’t simply try and copy Red Bull’s car for next year.
Aston Martin capitalised on retaining the downwash sidepod solution it had switched to early last year to initially produce a competitive front-running AMR23 challenger.
But the Silverstone squad were overhauled by both Ferrari and Mercedes once they adopted a version of the philosophy pioneered to devastating effect by Red Bull, while McLaren’s introduction of a revised car in Austria also enabled it to relegate Aston Martin to fifth position in the standings.
Aston Martin’s bid to reverse “side effects” from past upgrades had caused more complications as Fernando Alonso endured successive Q1 exits in Austin and Mexico.
Despite securing second, Mercedes admits it was hamstrung by the architecture of its launch-spec package and intends to launch an overhauled concept with its W15 car.
However, Hamilton has denied that the Brackley-based outfit will attempt to clone the title-winning Red Bull RB19, citing that a team has to understand how its car works.
Asked if Mercedes had ever discussed discarding its car design to replicate Red Bull’s 2023 charger, Hamilton retorted: “The thing is, with the timeline you have, and the limited resources you have, you can’t just throw it away and start from scratch. You can’t copy a car and start from that.
“Look at the Astons. They tried to copy a car and it wasn’t the same. It is not as easy as that. You have to try and take the good parts and through trial and error just try to add other parts.
“But you can imagine they are also nervous of making too big a change and it being the wrong one.
“We need to be consistently week on week adding performance, and we have higher targets than ever before because we have a massive gap to catch. That makes it really tricky.”
Prior to suffering two Q2 eliminations to close out the season, Hamilton had recorded successive second-place finishes on track in the United States and Mexico Grands Prix.
The Briton had credited the introduction of a modified floor at the Circuit of the Americas, which he described as “one of the first upgrades I’ve felt over the last two years.”
Mercedes’ improved performance allowed Hamilton to track Max Verstappen closely during the Austin Sprint race, granting him the chance to observe the RB19 up close.
“It does everything well,” Hamilton noted of Red Bull’s 2023 car, which won all but one race this year. “It looks very similar to my 2020 car, characteristic-wise. Super-stable.”
“They are firing on all cylinders. It looks like it’s in that kind of window, like we used to have, which for a driver is a dream because then you can really extract your own personal abilities to the max.”
Hamilton contends that the strength of Red Bull’s all-conquering creation enabled its drivers to not push as hard, thus preserving the tyres and accentuating its advantage.
He added: “We were the closest in Austin but I think they still always had a tenth or two at the bare minimum on us.
“You can go through lap times and some of the data from Max, he is chilling at the front more often than not. I don’t think he has broken a sweat during the year.
“Even when we were chasing him in Austin, I don’t think he was sweating. I think he was just able to control it.
“When you are in that position, when you have performance and can back off, the car goes further. The tyres go longer and you are in a sweet spot and it’s amazing to be in that place.
“Ultimately, they have done an amazing job and deserve it. Whereas for us, we were chasing, chasing.”
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