F1 News
Aston Martin hits development wall: 'Makes the car hard to drive'
Out of all the teams, even Sauber, 2024's last placed team in the Constructors', Aston Martin was the one who came out of winter testing looking the weakest. Its lead driver, Fernando Alonso assesses the difficulties teams face in their cars' development phase and downplays the paddock's collective judgment of his team's shape ahead of the 2025 season.
The AMR25 did not look quick, or settled across any of the three days of testing. Although the team are aiming at having the best possible 2025 season, Alonso reveals the difficulties behind that task. "We arrived to a point in the development of the car that it is quite tricky to add downforce without adding some difficulty on driving the car," said the Spaniard to media including GPblog.
Did Aston Martin ever find the right development direction?
But according to Alonso, Aston Martin are not dumbfounded by their winter testing performance. "But we are quite okay with the correlation and things." Another factor that increased the level of doubt with regards to the British racing green team was the lack of running. Nevertheless, echoing the words of the team's principal and CEO, Andy Cowell, Alonso does not think this is something to worry themselves over.
"Same with the laps. I know that we did not do many laps, but we are not concerned. The hardware, the car itself, is basically the ‘24 car. It's only the outside and all the aerodynamic parts that did change a lot for performance, but let's say the engines, radiators, drive shafts, suspension. Everything is the same as ‘24. So we don't need the normal race distances and so many laps like we will need next year. That is crucial to test the reliability," concluded Alonso.
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