While there’s no downside to using them when needed, teams also know that if they’re not in their back pocket for the end of the season, it comes with big risks.
Because if the battle for points is close, the last thing a team would want is an unexpected late-night job triggering a penalty on the final race grid that could derail all efforts of the year so far.
That’s why it’s often only in extreme emergency situations – like Williams changing cars in Australia following Alex Albon’s crash on Friday – that teams use them at the start of a campaign.
So it was interesting that at the recent Japanese Grand Prix, Aston Martin also chose to burn one of its wildcards, given that there was no unexpected drama on track.
Instead, this was done to ensure the team did not have to rush Fernando Alonso’s car into its latest upgrade package for qualifying day.
As performance director Tom McCullough explains about the early use of a wild card: “We never want to do that. But when we looked at the amount of work that needed to be done, it became clear that to do a good job with the fit and finish of the cars, and there were some items that needed to be glued to the chassis and stuff like that, it was necessary “It will not be possible to do everything.
Added team principal Mike Krack: “You have to take it all off, and then you have to put it back. And then, actually, the time required for all of this is quality control.
Aston Martin F1 Team Principal Mike Krack on the grid
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“So, is everything in the right place?” Do all parts fit 100% as they should?
“If you don’t have the quality, and you leave the next day and one car is one way and the other car measures something different, that’s the worst case scenario.
“Quality verification and quality control are sometimes insane: how much you have to check and recheck and recheck again. »
But there was a bigger factor at play behind Aston Martin’s decision not to sacrifice quality – and that was to ensure its upgrade journey for this year had a different outcome to that of the last season.
The story of the team’s 2023 campaign was one of a car that was super competitive early in the season, particularly when rivals like Ferrari and McLaren were behind, but then lost its way when improvements produced effects described as “secondary”. effects’ which left him a little lost.
Much of the middle phase of the campaign had to be spent understanding what was happening and testing things to try to understand what had changed.
Although it came out the other side with answers, Aston Martin clearly doesn’t want to experience such a roller coaster again – which is why it is much deeper into its 2024 development program.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin AMR24
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
This doesn’t mean it’s being more cautious about bringing in new parts, as Suzuka’s update schedule was ambitious due to the way the schedule is evolving, but there is a hint of a new level of confidence in what to do.
As McCullough explains: “You’re always trying to get things onto the track as quickly as possible.
“We had a kit that we could bring [to Japan], but it was tight. Then obviously the next two events are sprint events, and we didn’t want to do it in sprint events.
“Austin last year was quite difficult for us, introducing an update there while you’re trying to understand the car. So for us we’re still working in the wind tunnel to develop the car as hard as possible.”
Aston Martin’s upgrade policy in Japan paid off, as Alonso had what he claims was one of the five best weekends of his career, coming home sixth.
It also proved that the work done at the factory translated into track performance and the AMR24 appears to be a much better platform for improvement than its predecessor.
“I think last year as we were developing the car we were struggling to make much progress on the car,” McCullough added.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR24
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“We have changed the philosophy of the car quite a bit. The aero team is currently on a good development curve, and it’s just a matter of making the updates and putting them in place.
“I think the architecture and the philosophy of the car gave us the opportunity to achieve performance, and we gave ourselves a platform to continue in that direction.
“The proof of the pudding will be the next 20 races. But, for the moment, it is following the trajectory we want to follow.
