Fallows: Step forward box ‘ticked’ by Aston Martin in Bahrain

Aston Martin F1 technical director Dan Fallows says pre-season testing showed that the team’s efforts to improve on its 2023 design have been fruitful.

While several of its direct rivals opted for a radical overhaul of their design for 2024, Aston privileged an evolutionary approach, refining the car that secured eight podium finishes last year in the skillful hands of Fernando Alonso.

This week in Bahrain, Aston Martin's focus was on validating the effectiveness of their initial car package rather than on pure pace.

Fallows' comments suggest that the Silverstone-based outfit achieved its desired progress, indicating a car with solid foundations for further development.

“When we went into this season really looking for a step over the winter, we wanted to make sure we did get an improvement,” explained the Aston tech boss.

“Even though it's an evolution of last year's car, we wanted it to be a strong improvement as well as a strong evolution. And, we have seen that step, we've seen that benefit. So we’re very pleased about that.

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“I think the most important thing for us is where we go from here. We weren't 100% pleased with what we achieved in our in-season development last year. And we wanted to make sure we can compete at the top level in terms of in-season as well.

“I think we were mostly keen on making sure we made a step on last year, which we have done. So I think we can certainly tick that box.”

Since the end of last season, Alonso has repeatedly pinpointed two crucial aspects of Aston Martin’s car that required improvement: straight-line speed and downforce in high-speed corners.

Fallows did not specifically address either issue but suggested that significant progress had been achieved in both cases.

"We had some things that we focused on over the winter in terms of making the car good to drive, making the balance good,” said the British engineer.

“And I think we're reasonably happy with where we are now. We know we've always got things to improve, which is why we go back into the wind tunnel and why we go back to the drawing board to do those things.

“But so far, I think we've achieved a lot in three days in testing, done a lot of test items, and we're pretty pleased with the outcome."

Although Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack confirmed that his team had enjoyed a solid three days or running in Bahrain, the Luxembourger steered clear of gauging its position In the pecking order.

“We need to look into the next days, get all the full analysis, and it will be over the next days that we get a clearer picture as well,” he said.

“I think it was quite important for us that we look at ourselves: we have quite a big programme and we cannot influence anyway what others are doing. And now it's about the analysis, and also trying to understand what others did.

"If you go through the full range of track conditions, fuel loads, engine modes, tyres – we had all the five tyre specs here, I think you can cover a range of five seconds. To then discern who's ahead by how much, I think it's really, really tough."

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