After a series of disappointing weekends in Austria, Silverstone and Hungary, Aston Martin has important upgrades planned to turn around the AMR23’s lack of performance – starting in Belgium.
The British squad started the season in commanding fashion, consistently fighting for podiums irrespective of the track layout, weather conditions, or temperatures.
However, the upgrades introduced at the Canadian GP – though seemingly effective at the time – seem to have pushed Aston in the wrong direction.
What was once the biggest strength of the AMR23, low-speed performance, seems to have evaporated. In addition, no progress has been made in medium or high-speed corners.
It wasn’t as though Aston had no pace in high-speed corners to start the season either, as evidenced by their respectable pace in circuits such as Jeddah.
Regardless, the British squad fails to have understood or optimised its latest changes – whilst rivals such as McLaren make significant progress.
This issue is especially detrimental at this stage of the year, when most teams are looking for certainty in their concepts and development ideas for next season’s car.
Combining this with Pirelli’s new tyre specification introduced in Britain has created a perfect storm to upset the Silverstone team’s fairytale start to 2023.
Following a season-worst result (P9 and P10) in Hungary, reports quickly emerged that updates would be introduced to the AMR23.
This information has been confirmed by The Race, who spoke with Aston team principal Mike Krack ahead of the action this weekend:
“We have a change on the rear wing, and we have a change on the floor.
“It is more a lower-downforce specific for Vegas, Monza, these kinds of races.”
The weather forecast suggests that dry running will be limited in Spa, which could impede Aston’s ability to collect the necessary data for their AMR23.
Fernando Alonso can certainly excel in wet conditions, but given the team’s current position, Mike Krack will surely be hoping for more time to solve this latest puzzle.
Author: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
