The 2023 F1 season proved to be the most dominant in history, with Red Bull achieving more than 95% of victories. All the teams, except Ferrari in Singapore, remained empty-handed, but some teams can still be satisfied with the progress made compared to previous years.
One of these is certainly Aston Martin, which managed to secure 5th in the standings, a clear improvement compared to P7 last year.
The English team showed up at the tests in Bahrain with not particularly exciting expectations, considering the progress of the previous season. However, the hiring of Double World Champion Fernando Alonso and some important technicians, such as Dan Fallows (ex-Red Bull), has significantly encouraged the work in the factory during the winter, also thanks to the ambitions of Stroll Sr.
Positive season with too high expectations after the debut
The Spanish driver has felt at ease since the tests in Bahrain, so much so that in the race, the former Ferrari driver positioned himself on the podium after numerous battles with the Mercedes drivers:
“There were moments during the pre-test -season where I thought it was too good to be true. Then we had the first race. We were as competitive as the three days of testing suggested, and we ended up on the podium.
“I had the feeling that there was an opportunity for me and the team to do something great together. The project seemed to be coming alive. It was magical.”
Furthermore, driver n14 was asked if the choice to leave Alpine and move to Aston Martin was the correct one, given the various wrong choices that influenced his sporting career:
“I was super happy. I felt very lucky with the decision. In Formula One, you never have a crystal ball to anticipate what will happen the following year, but when you make the decision, change teams and then suddenly you’re fighting for podiums, that’s one of the best feelings .”
However, after a start above expectations, Aston Martin went through a downturn in the second half of the season. The English team was unable to progress much, unlike Ferrari, Mercedes and especially McLaren.
Team principal Mike Krack, looking at the glass half full, wanted to underline how the exceptional start to the season has significantly raised expectations, forgetting what goals they were fighting for in the previous season:
“The middle of the year was difficult for us, but maybe it seemed more because of the start we had. Expectation levels have risen dramatically.
“Imagine if our season hadn’t started with 6 podiums in the first 8 Grands Prix, but only one? If that were the case, then what happened in rounds 9, 10, 11 and 12 isn’t really that inconsistent. Scoring 23 points in the first game understandably raises expectations.”
A problem understanding the car compromised 2023 development, but the path for next year is clear
Fernando Alonso, from this point of view, was instead more analytical, underlining the hard work done over the weekend to identify the causes and problems that characterized the car in that period:
“The important thing during the low weekends was to understand what the problem [and] deepen the analysis of the car, of what we could have done differently if we had repeated the weekend.
“Those kinds of things, those exercises, made the team stronger, and it was a good learning for the future. We were taking positives from the difficult weekends. It was great to see the team together.”
Mid-season development has been the Achilles’ heel for numerous teams since the most important regulatory revolutions in F1. Aston Martin is among them.
Despite the updates introduced in Barcelona and Montreal, the Silverstone team went through a dark period, which seemed to have no way out. Towards the end of the season, however, performance partially came back to life, with an excellent result in Brazil, the result of several hours of intense work in free practice on previous race weekends, such as Austin.
“I think this has something to do with the development of the car,” admitted Alonso. The Silverstone team wanted to “sacrifice” some technical characteristics during the season to make the AMR23 faster.
“This narrowed the operating window of the machine”, underlined the Spaniard. This is a theme across many teams.
2024 will be the litmus test, especially as Alonso looks to assess the team’s medium-term competitiveness. Krack wants to keep his feet on the ground, but his words still show a level of confidence:
“We understood the car by the end of the season, but it would be wrong to say that we understood absolutely everything.
“We know what we want to do for 2024 and the direction we need to go, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that when the 2024 season starts in Bahrain, we will be fighting for victory.”
Alonso hopes for a first win with Aston Martin in 2024, Mike Krack highlights Lance Stroll’s progress
Linking to this concept, Fernando Alonso believes that next season’s objectives will be in line with the results achieved this year:
“I don’t think the objective will change much because there are too many unknowns every season – anything can happen in Formula One.
“When we go on track in winter testing, I think we should see how things are first, and then we will be very open with any goals we have set for the championship.
“We hope to be competitive again, fighting for regular points and podiums. We hope for our first win – that would be the dream.
“But we cannot underestimate the challenge. We exceeded expectations this year because expectations were low. That’s why this season is incredible. If we set expectations too high, there is a danger that the opposite will happen.”
In the interview released by Krack, there was no shortage of praise for Lance Stroll despite not having had an exciting season. The team principal wanted to underline his progress in the last race weekends, far closer to Alonso’s level:
“Lance is in a fantastic place. He is relaxed and confident. You can see it in his body language. It is very impressive how he has developed as a driver this year.
“He suffered a pre-season injury but showed real grit and determination to get back behind the wheel as quickly as possible. And, despite everything he had been through, he was still very fast.
“Then, later in the season, he returned to fighting after a difficult phase. He had a lot of pressure to deal with, and he handled it with a lot of confidence.
“I wish the season had been a little longer for him because he was very fast in the final rounds. We can build on this. This is what needs to happen now, he just needs to pick up where he left off this season. He has overcome many challenges this year and is now very much on the rise.”
