Aston Martin 'on the right path' for 2023 thanks to season's learnings

Aston Martin believes the ideas and learnings it has taken away from its disappointing 2022 campaign have put the team "on the right path" for next season.

Aston's new-generation car was among F1's early laggards at the start of the year, leaving the team's engineers scrambling to improve their contender's pace as quickly as possible.

A significant upgrade package that appeared largely inspired by the aero characteristics of Red Bull's RB18 was implemented at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

While the changes yielded little immediate improvement, progress was eventually achieved as the season unfolded, with Aston finally taking a step forward in the back half of 2022.

However, Team Silverstone's performance director Tom McCullough says that beyond the on-track gains, the lessons taken away from Aston's initial flawed concept and its development in the first part of the season will prove crucial for 2023.

"The performance potential of our launch car was big, but we went down a different route because we couldn't get it to work as well as we wanted," McCullough explained in an interview on Aston's website.

"The scale of the concept change should not be underestimated.

"We completely changed the cooling layout, floor, sidepods, engine cover, brake ducts, fins around the halo, mirrors – everything changed.

"Since we introduced it at the Spanish Grand Prix, we've steadily improved. Race by race we've brought small upgrades to the car and developed the package.

"When we introduced the new concept, we were lacking in terms of high-speed performance, but we've gradually made gains in this area, and we really saw that in the United States GP."

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McCullough laid out Aston's game plan for 2023, which is to position itself in F1's midfield at the outset and push forward from there by relying on an aggressive approach in terms of design.

"We want to get to the front of the midfield pack and then start charging ahead – to do that, we've got to be aggressive," said the British engineer.

"We tried to be aggressive as we could this year, but with the budget cap and resources available this has been difficult.

"There are parts that we would love to have made. The front wing, for example, is largely the same as the one with which we started the year.

"There's so much we could have done, but we couldn't afford to within the budget cap – especially after the significant changes we made to car in Barcelona. The formula has changed somewhat. "Now, it's about trying to pick the upgrades that will give you the best performance return versus the cost.

"For 2023, we've got to put all our ideas and learnings from this year together to deliver a significantly better car. It's all relative though, as every other team will be doing the same.

"We think the path we're now on is the right one, and we'll be able to iterate our 2023 car to consistently deliver more performance rather than having to change concept mid-season."

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