Aston Martin’s deputy technical director Eric Blandid has said that the squad has changed more than ‘95% of aerodynamic surfaces’ on the AMR23 ahead of the new season.
Team Silverstone had a difficult year in 2022 finishing seventh in the constructors’ standings, however, expectations for the new season are high having signed Fernando Alonso from Alpine to partner Lance Stroll.
The team looks strong in terms of technical personnel, having bought in Dan Fallows from Red Bull early last year with Blandin himself coming over from Mercedes.
An all new £200m factory is also being built near the original site at Silverstone and according to team principal Mike Krack, is said to be a ‘game changer.’
Big changes for 2023
Ahead of the new season Aston Martin have apparently made many changes to the design of the car as it aims to climb the midfield and fulfil Lawrence Stroll’s five-year plan to be challenging for F1 titles outlined back in March 2021.
Blandin said in an interview on the Aston Martin website: “We took all our learnings from last year’s car and applied them to this year’s car.
“So much of the AMR23 is new, it’s completely different from the AMR22. We’ve changed more than 90 per cent of the parts and more than 95 per cent of the aerodynamic surfaces are different.”
The squad was one of the worst teams afflicted by aerodynamic porpoising early in 2022 with a car concept that fundamentally didn’t work. However, improvements were made throughout the year as they edged their way up the midfield – notably with a change in direction at the Spanish Grand Prix, where they unveiled a design controversially similar to the RB18.
Still trying to find loopholes
At the Hungarian Grand Prix Aston Martin introduced a clever rear wing design by extending the permitted curvature of radius of the endplates, meaning it was able to create an endplate that curved up vertically, to allow the wing to contain a higher pressure for longer and minimise airflow spillage, therefore adding downforce.
The design was completely legal last season; however, the interpretation has been outlawed by the FIA for 2023 as it goes against the ‘spirit’ of the regulations intended to allow the cars to follow closely to one another and improve overtaking compared to previous years.
Despite the ban, Blandin has said that the team has ‘a few clever innovations’ but reiterated that it’s important to get the basics right first.
“We’ve implemented a few clever innovations on the new car – they’re the icing on the cake. They’re a nice-to-have, but not a must-have.
“It’s great when you find a small loophole and can use it to your advantage, but it’s not often you can base an entire car around it. Instead, it’s essential to get the basics right, and then you can add things.
“When you start a new car project, you identify what your limitations were the previous year – and how you can overcome them with the new design – and you define the architecture that will give you the most potential for the future.”
Aston Martin will reveal the AMR23 on February 13th from their new factory at Silverstone.