The new model is the first to be developed under former Red Bull Fallows man, who started working at Silverstone in April, and aerodynamics chief Eric Blandin, who was previously at Mercedes.
This year’s AMR22 was designed to allow for a change in concept, and it has been developed significantly over the season. Fallows suggests that next year’s car will represent a further step.
“I mean there’s a limit to what we can do with the current rules,” he said when asked if it would look visibly different. “I know new cars always have to pass my kids’ test. So if I put them in front of my kids and they say they look different, then they look different.
“They always say they all look alike, Dad!” But within the rules envelope that we have, so yes, there are significant differences on the AMR23.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR22
Photo by: Erik Junius
The floor changes introduced by the FIA to combat porpoises and rebounds forced all teams to pursue bigger changes than they otherwise could have done.
“The new flooring regulations aren’t a huge shift in reality,” Fallows said. “But they had a reasonable dent in terms of the downforce that the cars are capable of producing, so we had to try to overcome that deficit as well as anyone would.
“I think it’s hard to say whether some teams will be more affected than others, but for us it was certainly a reasonably big boost.
“But we obviously hope what the FIA also hopes, it will help with everybody’s aero wobble which we obviously want to get rid of.”
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Fallows acknowledged that Aston’s rise in the latter part of the year, which took them from ninth to seventh place in the World Championship, indicated that the team was heading in the right direction. with development.
“That’s been a big factor in building confidence for the next year,” he said. “We clearly started the year with a car that wasn’t where we wanted it to be, and we showed that development, I think especially in the second half of the season, we really showed that this type of design the principles we have put in place and the philosophies we embrace are paying off, and they will pay dividends.
“So what we’re trying to do for next year is to take a very aggressive development strategy, but build on the lessons from this year.”
Fallows says he was impressed with what he found at Aston Martin after his years at RBR.
“I’ve been delighted with the level of technical conversations I’ve had since I’ve been here. I think this team has grown from something relatively small to, you’ve seen the ambition, you’ve seen the size that we’ve now grown to and want to reach, in terms of operating and developing the car.
“And it’s a journey, so what I’ve seen I can really add value and what Eric Blandin is coming along with, we can add that kind of clarity of purpose, that clarity of direction. I think that’s the thing we rely on.
“What I saw was a group of extremely passionate and very talented people, some of whom have been here for a very long time and have a huge amount of experience.
“So the main thing for us is to make sure that we tap into that experience and that passion, and not destroy it at the same time as trying to grow and make us a winning team.”
