For the second time this season, Aston Martin is set to roll out a significantly updated car, with the Silverstone-based outfit implementing a new package on its AMR22 for next week's British Grand Prix.
Aston grabbled the headlines last month in Barcelona when it fielded a heavily revised car that took a lot of inspiration, and then some, from Red Bull's RB18 and its distinctive upward slanted sidepod design.
Amid copying allegations, Aston's car was deemed legal by the FIA and has since boosted the performance of the green team.
But there's more to come according to Aston team principal Mike Krack.
"We bring steps all the time, but major ones are a bit differently [managed]," said the German, quoted by The Race.
"For Silverstone, we will have another substantial update. But I think most of the teams will have. So, it’s also a matter of who brings how much and how effective it will be.
"But we’re quite confident, we made a good step. And the next step will also be good.
"So the target has to be to really get in front of this midfield so that you can start from the points."
Krack contends that small gains for Aston Martin would equate to a big step forward for the team in F1's pecking order given how tight the midfield currently is.
"You don’t need a big step to make up a lot of positions," said the Aston chief. "This was a little bit different in the past, when you had really low positions and there were big differences between the cars.
"But in Baku, I think in FP3, between P5 and P15 there was 0.4-something seconds.
"If you manage to be in front of that group, the points that you score are much, much more than if you lack those two, three-tenths that you need for it.
"So that is also why we cannot just say we look at the new car. We have to get to the front of this group, and then it is easier to fight for points because we can’t terminate a year where we started it."
After the first three races this, Aston Martin was the only team that had not scored a top-ten finish. It has since scored points in every round save for Barcelona, and it currently sits eighth in the Constructors' standings.
Despite Aston's new update package, Krack says the team needs to keep its feet firmly on the ground at Silverstone as the track's layout, similar to Barcelona, may not be as favourable to its car as Baku and Montreal.
"We have a combination of a car that is certainly better, but also tracks that helped us be a bit more competitive than we maybe would have been had there been three races at a Barcelona-like track," he said.
"We need to keep our feet on the ground. We know that we need to bring updates for these kind of tracks that are now coming, and that is also why we elected to do it like that.
"We have to update the car to be able to stay competitive, because we know also everyone will have updates at Silverstone."
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